Edinburgh Northern and Leith (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Edinburgh North and Leith (Scottish Parliament constituency) or Edinburgh North and Leith (UK Parliament constituency).

Edinburgh Northern and Leith (Gaelic: Dùn Èideann a Tuath agus Lite) is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Edinburgh. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. It is one of nine constituencies in the Lothian electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Edinburgh Northern and Leith
Burgh constituency for the Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh Northern and Leith shown within the Lothian electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Population	93,605 (2019)[1]
Current constituency
Created	2011
Party	SNP
MSP	Ben Macpherson
Council area	City of Edinburgh
Created from	Edinburgh North and Leith

Prior to the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, most of the constituency was part of the Edinburgh North and Leith constituency.

The seat has been held by Ben Macpherson of the Scottish National Party since the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.

Electoral region

See also: Lothian (Scottish Parliament electoral region)

The other eight constituencies of the Lothian region are: Almond Valley, Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Eastern, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh Southern, Edinburgh Western, Linlithgow and Midlothian North and Musselburgh.

The region includes all of the City of Edinburgh council area, parts of the East Lothian council area, parts of the Midlothian council area and all of the West Lothian council area.

Constituency boundaries and council area

Map of boundaries from 2011

Edinburgh is represented in the Scottish Parliament by six constituencies: Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Eastern, Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh Southern and Edinburgh Western.

The Edinburgh North and Leith constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of an existing Westminster constituency. In 2005, however, Scottish House of Commons constituencies were mostly replaced with new constituencies.^[2]

Since 2011, "Edinburgh Northern and Leith" has consisted of the electoral wards of:^[3]

• In full: Leith Walk
• In part: Forth, Inverleith, Leith

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	2011	Malcolm Chisholm	Labour
	2016	Ben Macpherson	SNP

Election results

2020s

2021 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Northern and Leith^[4][5][6]

Party		Candidate	Constituency			Regional
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Ben Macpherson[a]	22,443	47.9	1.2	18,174	38.7	2.4
	Labour	Katrina Faccenda	10,874	23.2	5.3	8,726	18.6	1.2
	Scottish Green	Lorna Slater	6,116	13.1	New	9,243	19.7	1.6
	Conservative	Callum Laidlaw	5,052	10.8	5.6	6,293	13.4	4.4
	Liberal Democrats	Rebecca Bell	2,035	4.3	0.5	2,177	4.6	1.0
	Alba					770	1.6	New
	Animal Welfare					264	0.6	New
	All for Unity					220	0.5	New
	Scottish Family					212	0.5	New
	Freedom Alliance (UK)	Jon Pullman	314	0.7	New	180	0.4	New
	Women's Equality					167	0.4	1.4
	Reform UK					110	0.2	New
	Scottish Libertarian					83	0.2	New
	Communist					80	0.2	New
	Abolish the Scottish Parliament					78	0.2	New
	Independent	Ashley Graczyk				58	0.1	New
	UKIP					43	0.1	1.4
	SDP					23	0.0	New
	Renew					14	0.0	New
Majority			11,569	24.7	6.5
Valid Votes			46,834			46,915
Invalid Votes			155			85
Turnout			46,989	63.0	7.5	47,000	63.0	7.6
	SNP hold		Swing		3.3
Notes Incumbent member for this constituency

2010s

2016 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Northern and Leith^[7][8][9]

Party		Candidate	Constituency			Regional
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Ben Macpherson	17,322	46.7	7.0	13,495	36.3	1.2
	Labour	Lesley Hinds	10,576	28.5	13.1	7,364	19.8	4.4
	Scottish Green					6,744	18.1	5.8
	Conservative	Ian McGill	6,081	16.4	6.9	6,623	17.8	8.7
	Liberal Democrats	Martin Veart	1,779	4.8	4.4	1,349	3.6	2.2
	Independent	Jack Caldwell	1,344	3.6	New
	Women's Equality					658	1.8	New
	UKIP					568	1.5	1.0
	RISE					293	0.8	New
	Solidarity					120	0.3	0.1
Majority			6,746	18.2	N/A
Valid Votes			37,102			37,214
Invalid Votes			260			73
Turnout			37,362	55.5	3.0	37,287	55.4	2.8
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing

2011 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Northern and Leith^[10][11][12]

Party		Candidate	Constituency			Region
			Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Malcolm Chisholm[a]	12,858	41.6	N/A	7,508	24.2	N/A
	SNP	Shirley-Anne Somerville[a]	12,263	39.7	N/A	11,610	37.5	N/A
	Scottish Green					3,812	12.3	N/A
	Conservative	Sheila Low	2,928	9.5	N/A	2,803	9.1	N/A
	Independent	Margo MacDonald[a]				2,157	7.0	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Dan Farthing	2,836	9.2	N/A	1,805	5.8	N/A
	All-Scotland Pensioners Party					266	0.9	N/A
	Scottish Socialist					211	0.7	N/A
	Socialist Labour					177	0.6	N/A
	UKIP					155	0.5	N/A
	BNP					148	0.5	N/A
	Liberal					91	0.3	N/A
	Scottish Christian					90	0.3	N/A
	Solidarity					57	0.2	N/A
	CPA					41	0.1	N/A
	Independent	Ken O'Neil				17	0.1	N/A
	Independent	David Hogg				11	0.0	N/A
	Independent	Mev Brown				7	0.0	N/A
Majority			595	1.9	N/A
Valid Votes			30,885			30,966
Invalid Votes			172			114
Turnout			31,057	52.5	N/A	31,080	52.6	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)
Notes Incumbent member on the party list, or for another constituency

See also

• Politics of Edinburgh