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2001 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

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Field	Value
election_name	2001 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
country	Scotland
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1997 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
previous_year	1997
previous_mps	List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1997
next_election	2005 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
next_year	2005
seats_for_election	All 72 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
elected_mps	List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 2001
election_date
turnout	58.2%, 13.1%
1blank	UK seats
image1
leader1	Tony Blair
leader_since1	[21 July 1994](1994-labour-party-leadership-election)
party1	Labour Party (UK)
seats_before1	56
seats1	56
seat_change1
1data1	413
popular_vote1	1,017,226
percentage1	43.9%
swing1	1.7%
image2
leader2	Charles Kennedy
leader_since2	[9 August 1999](1999-liberal-democrats-leadership-election)
party2	Liberal Democrats (UK)
seats_before2	10
seats2	10
seat_change2
1data2	52
popular_vote2	380,034
percentage2	16.4%
swing2	3.4%
image4
leader4	John Swinney
leader_since4	[23 September 2000](2000-scottish-national-party-leadership-election)
party4	Scottish National Party
seats_before4	6
seats4	5
seat_change4	1
1data4	5
popular_vote4	464,314
percentage4	20.1%
swing4	2.0%
image5
leader5	William Hague
leader_since5	[19 June 1997](1997-conservative-party-leadership-election)
party5	Conservative Party (UK)
popular_vote5	360,658
percentage5	15.6%
swing5	1.9%
seats_before5	0
seats5	1
seat_change5	1
1data5	166
map_image	File:2001 UK General election in Scotland.svg
map_caption	Coloured according to the winning party's vote share in each constituency

Main article: 2001 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 7 June 2001 and all 72 seats in Scotland were contested. There was only one Scottish seat which changed parties during the election; that of Galloway and Upper Nithsdale which Peter Duncan of the Conservative Party gained from Alisdair Morgan of the Scottish National Party, by just 74 votes. Apart from the Conservatives increasing their representation to a single seat, the election was essentially a repeat of the previous result four years earlier; with Labour still the largest party in terms of seats won.

Results summary

Main article: List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (2001–2005)

Below is a table summarising the results of the 2001 general election in Scotland.

Party	Seats	Aggregate votes	Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	Of all (%)	Total
	56	0	0		77.8	1,017,226	43.9	1.7
	5	0	1	1	6.9	464,314	20.1	2.0
	10	0	0		13.9	380,034	16.4	3.4
	1	1	0	1	1.4	360,658	15.6	1.9
	0	0	0		0.0	72,518	3.1	New
	0	0	0		0.0	4,551	0.2	0.1
	0	0	0		0.0	3,825	0.2
	0	0	0		0.0	3,236	0.1
	0	0	0		0.0	3,184	0.1
	0	0	0		0.0	2,728	0.1
	0	0	0		0.0	955	0.0	New
	0	0	0		0.0	786	0.0	0.2
	0	0	0		0.0	405	0.0
	0	0	0		0.0	383	0.0
	0	0	0		0.0	265	0.0	New
	0	0	0		0.0	250	0.0	New
	0	0	0		0.0	211	0.0	New
	0	0	0		0.0	174	0.0
72					2,315,703	58.2	13.1

File:United Kingdom general election 2001 in Scotland.svg|2001 map of Scottish Constituencies - Results

Votes and seats summary

Outcome

The result saw very little change from the last contest in 1997, though after being wiped out in Scotland four years earlier, this time the Conservatives managed to win one seat. A notable feature of the election was that turnout fell to 58%, which reportedly caused all of Scotland's political parties to be "worried about voter apathy".

Although the Conservatives once again had a Scottish MP, their vote actually share fell compared with 1997 and in vote share terms they fell to fourth place. On top of this they failed to win several target seats including Edinburgh Pentlands where former MP Malcolm Rifkind failed to regain the seat and Eastwood where Labour incumbent Jim Murphy substantially increased his majority over the Scottish Conservative Chairman Raymond Robertson. The Conservatives did come close to gaining Perth where Liz Smith came within 48 votes of taking the seat from the SNP. David McLetchie, the Scottish Conservative leader, said that one seat was "better than nothing".

As well as losing Galloway and Upper Nithsdale to the Conservatives the SNP failed to take any of their target seats and saw a decline in their share of the vote, though still had the second highest vote share in Scotland. Nevertheless the former SNP leader Alex Salmond said "consolidating as the second party in Scotland is no mean achievement" and put the party in a good position for the 2003 Scottish Parliament election.

Although Labour held all its seats it also saw a decline in its vote share. In contrast the Liberal Democrats increased their vote share, though they did not win any additional seats. The new Scottish Socialist Party had set themselves what leader Tommy Sheridan called an "ambitious" target of 100,000 votes they ultimately polled 70,000 votes. Sheridan attributed this to the significant drop in turnout compared with 1997.

References

(14 August 2001). "Election 2001 | Results | Scotland". BBC News.
(8 June 2001). "Scots parties reflect on historic election". BBC News Vote 2001.
(8 June 2001). "Gain but still pain for Tories". BBC News Vote 2001.
(8 June 2001). "Salmond hails poll standing". BBC News Vote 2001.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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