1997 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

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1997 United Kingdom general election

← 1992

1 May 1997

2001 →

← outgoing members elected members →

All 72 Scottish seats to the House of Commons

Turnout

71.3%,

4.2%

	First party	Second party

Leader	Tony Blair	Paddy Ashdown
Party	Labour	Liberal Democrats
Leader since	21 July 1994	16 July 1988
Last election	49 seats, 39.0%	9 seats, 13.1%
Seats before	49	9
Seats won	56	10
Seat change	7	1
Popular vote	1,283,350	365,362
Percentage	45.6%	13.0%
Swing	6.6%	0.1%

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	Alex Salmond	John Major
Party	SNP	Conservative
Leader since	22 September 1990	4 July 1995
Last election	3 seats, 21.5%	11 seats, 25.6%
Seats before	3	11
Seats won	6	0
Seat change	3	11
Popular vote	621,550	493,059
Percentage	22.1%	17.5%
Swing	0.6%	8.2%

Coloured according to the winning party's vote share in each constituency

Main article: 1997 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on 1 May 1997 and all 72 seats in Scotland were contested. This would be the last UK general election to be contested in Scotland before the Scottish Parliament was established on 1 July 1999 following overwhelming public approval in a referendum.

MPs

List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1997–2001)

Top target seats of the main parties

Labour targets

Rank	Constituency		Swing to gain	Labour's place 1992	Result
1	Ayr	Conservative	0.1	2nd	Lab Gain
2	Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber	Liberal Democrats	0.45	2nd	Lab Gain
3	Stirling	Conservative	0.75	2nd	Lab Gain
4	Aberdeen South	Conservative	1.85	2nd	Lab Gain
5	Edinburgh Pentlands	Conservative	4.8	2nd	Lab Gain

SNP targets

Rank	Constituencee		Swing to gain	SNP's place 1992	Result
1	Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber	Liberal Democrats	0.65	3rd	Lab Gain
2	Perth	Conservative	2.1	2nd	SNP Gain
3	Galloway and Upper Nithsdale	Conservative	2.75	2nd	SNP Gain
4	North Tayside	Conservative	4.6	2nd	SNP Gain

Conservative targets

Rank	Constituency		Swing to gain	Con place 1992	Result
1	Gordon	Liberal Democrats	0.2	2nd	LD hold
2	Angus East	SNP	1	2nd	SNP hold
3	Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber	Liberal Democrats	1.7	4th	Lab Gain
4	West Renfrewshire	Labour	1.85	2nd	Lab hold
5	Edinburgh Central	Labour	2.7	2nd	Lab hold
6	Moray	SNP	3.1	2nd	SNP hold
7	Strathkelvin and Bearsden	Labour	3.1	2nd	Lab hold
8	Cunninghame North	Labour	3.45	2nd	Lab hold
9	Argyll and Bute	Liberal Democrats	3.6	2nd	LD hold
10	North East Fife	Liberal Democrats	3.95	2nd	LD hold
11	Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale	Liberal Democrats	4.1	2nd	LD hold
12	Banff and Buchan	SNP	4.45	2nd	SNP hold
13	Edinburgh South	Labour	4.7	2nd	Lab hold

Liberal Democrat targets

Rank	Constituency	Winning party 1992		Swing to gain	LD's place 1992	Result
1	Edinburgh West		Conservative	0.6	2nd	LD Gain
2	West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine		Conservative	4.3	2nd	LD Gain

Results

Below is a table summarising the results of the 1997 general election in Scotland.

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Labour	56	7	1,283,350	45.6	6.6
	SNP	6	3	621,550	22.1	0.6
	Liberal Democrats	10	1	365,362	13.0	0.1
	Conservative	0	11	493,059	17.5	8.2
	Referendum	0	New	26,726	0.95	New
	Scottish Socialist	0	New	9,740	0.35	New
	ProLife Alliance	0		5,750	0.25
	Independent	0		2,162	0.08
	Natural Law	0		1,979	0.07
	Socialist Labour	0		1,945	0.07
	Scottish Green	0		1,721	0.06	0.2
	UKIP	0		1,585	0.06
	Independent Labour	0		812	0.03
	BNP	0		651	0.02
	Liberal	0		650	0.02
	Socialist (GB)	0		315	0.01
	Workers Revolutionary	0		80	0.00
Turnout				2,816,748	71.3	4.2

Votes summary

Popular vote

Labour			45.56%
SNP			22.06%
Conservative			17.50%
Liberal Democrats			12.97%
Other			1.91%

Parliament seats

Labour			77.78%
Liberal Democrats			13.89%
SNP			8.33%

Outcome

The election saw the Conservatives lose every seat that they held in Scotland, although the party were third in terms of vote share (winning 17.5% of votes cast in Scotland). By contrast the Liberal Democrats won 13% of votes cast, but won ten seats, a net gain of one on the previous election. The SNP finished second in terms of vote share with 22%, but only won six seats. Labour won 45.6% of the vote and 56 seats, a net gain of seven on 1992. The defeated Conservative included three cabinet ministers: the Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Forsyth lost Stirling to Labour, the Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind lost Edinburgh Pentlands, also to Labour, while Ian Lang, President of the Board of Trade, lost Galloway and Upper Nithsdale to the SNP.

Notes

Conservative party leader John Major resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party on 22 June 1995 to face critics in his party and government, and was reelected as Leader on 4 July 1995. Prior to his resignation he had held the post of Leader of the Conservative Party since 28 November 1990.

References

"1995: Major wins Conservative leadership". BBC News. 4 July 1995.
"Election 2001 | Results | Scotland". BBC News. 14 August 2001. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
Gillian Bowditch (1997). "Future of the Union:Scotland. Tory Silence in the Glens". The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1997. London: Times Books. pp. 39–40. ISBN 0-7230-0956-2.

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Scotland portal

v t e 1997 United Kingdom general election
MPs elected Northern Ireland Scotland Wales MPs who lost their seat Opinion polling Results by constituency
Incumbent prime minister: John Major (Conservative) Appointed prime minister: Tony Blair (Labour)
Parties elected to the House of Commons	Labour (Tony Blair) Conservative (John Major) Liberal Democrats (Paddy Ashdown) Ulster Unionist Party (David Trimble) Scottish National Party (Alex Salmond) Plaid Cymru (Dafydd Wigley) Social Democratic and Labour Party (John Hume) Sinn Féin (Gerry Adams) Democratic Unionist Party (Ian Paisley) UK Unionist Party (Robert McCartney)
Results by area	England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
See also	"Things Can Only Get Better" Blair Babe Martin Bell Tatton in the general election Enfield Southgate in the election Portillo moment New Labour, New Danger Referendum Party The Queen
1997 United Kingdom local elections

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