SNP lose seats in capital but hold on in Lothians and Fife

The SNP have lost two seats in the capital, with the Scottish Greens taking Edinburgh Central and the Scottish Liberal Democrats gaining Edinburgh Northern.

But across the Lothians and Fife the political landscape remains unchanged with the SNP holding all their seats and the Liberal Democrats holding Fife North East.

Lorna Slater became the first ever Scottish Green Party MSP to win a constituency, taking Edinburgh Central with 12,680 votes.

Labour's James Dalgleish came second with 8,098 votes while SNP incumbent Angus Robertson came third with 7,702 votes.

Slater, who was a minister in the Scottish government as part of a previous power-sharing deal with the SNP, said she was grateful to those voters who had put their trust in her.

Her victory was "a big step for the Scottish Green Party", she added.

Elsewhere in Edinburgh Liberal Democrats leader Alex Cole-Hamilton held Edinburgh North Western with a comfortable 22,959 votes - more than double the number secured by Lyn Jardine who came second with 9,943.

Cole-Hamilton said: "We're getting incredible results in places in our wonderful country that have never really thought about the Lib Dems.

"We're getting double the share of the vote we got last time, almost everywhere, which I think spells really good news for the regional lists."

He added: "I am really excited about the new parliamentary group that I will be welcoming to parliament next week."

The Lib Dems also took the new Edinburgh Northern seat from the SNP, created by boundary changes.

This constituency was formerly split between Edinburgh Central, Northern and Leith and Edinburgh Western.

Sanne Dijkstra-Downie won it for the Lib Dems with 12,972 votes while Euan Hyslop came second with 10,479 votes.

Labour won Edinburgh Southern, which is one of several in Scotland that has been subject to boundary changes since the last election.

Daniel Johnson won the seat for Labour with 16,963 votes.

Experts had calculated that if this version of the map had been used in 2021, then the SNP would have won the seat.

This is why Labour's victory in the seat is listed as a "gain" rather than a "hold".

SNP held Edinburgh North Eastern and Leith with Ben Macpherson getting 13,630 votes and Edinburgh South Western with 11,727 votes for Simita Kumar.

The boundaries were drawn with the aim of 60,000 people being enclosed within each zone.

Colin Beattie for the SNP, managed to hold on to his Midlothian North seat with 11,250 votes, followed by Caitlin Stott for Labour with 8754.

Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale was another SNP hold.

A major change this year was the formation of the Edinburgh Eastern, Musselburgh and Tranent constituency.

It remained an SNP hold with Kate Campbell taking 14,083 votes.

East Lothian Coast and Lammermuirs was also an SNP hold with 11,677 votes.

In West Lothian, Almondvalley and Bathgate remained SNP along with Linlithgow which is grouped with East Falkirk.

Across Fife there has been no changes with the SNP holding all seats across the region except Fife North East.

In the only Fife seat which isn't SNP, Willie Rennie took over 60% of the vote.

In Mid Fife and Glenrothes Jenny Gilruth won for SNP with 12,461 votes, followed by Reform's Sacha Haworth who had 4,827 votes.

In Dunfermline Shirley-Anne Somerville won for the SNP with 14,206 votes.

In Kirkcaldy David Torrance won for the party with 12,230 votes and in Cowdenbeath it was David Barratt with 11,994 votes.

On the Edinburgh and Lothians East regional list, the Scottish Greens secured three seats - for Kate Nevens, Q Manivannan, and Kayleigh Ferguson Kinross-O'Neill.

Irshad Ahmed and Katherine Sangster won seats for Scottish Labour, and Miles Briggs was successful for the Scottish Conservatives.

Angela Ross, of Reform UK, will also be a list MSP.

On the Central Scotland and Lothian West regional list Reform UK secured three seats for - Graham Simpson, Mandy Lindsay and Amanda Bland.

Mark Griffin and Jenny Young won seats for Scottish Labour.

Meghan Gallagher won a seat for the Scottish Conservatives and co-leader of the Scottish Greens Gillian Mackay will also be a list MSP.