The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019, two and a half years after the previous general election in June 2017. The Scottish National Party (SNP) received the most votes (45%, up 8.1% from the previous election) and won 48 out of 59 seats—a gain of 13 over those won in 2017, and 81% of the Scottish seats in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

. SNP gains came at the expense of both Labour and the Conservatives. The Tories remained the largest unionist party in Scotland even though they lost more than half of their Scottish seats, winning six compared to thirteen in 2017. Labour was reduced to only one seat, down from seven. The Liberal Democrats managed to win four Scottish seats for no net change, although party leader

Jo Swinson Joanne Kate Swinson (born 5 February 1980) is a former British Liberal Democrat politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 22 July to 13 December 2019. She was the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position, as well ...

(herself the only major party leader to stand for election in Scotland) was unseated in her bid for re-election by her SNP challenger. Labour's vote share was its lowest at a Westminster election in Scotland since December 1910.

Political context

The June 2017 general election in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

was fought in the aftermath of the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, in which the SNP won a third term in government but lost its overall majority in the Scottish Parliament (although the proportional electoral system at Holyrood was intentionally designed to make it very difficult for any one party to gain a majority). The

2016 EU referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

was held a month later on Thursday 23 June, and the final result was for the United Kingdom to leave the EU, although Scotland voted 62.0% Remain. Negotiations then began after the invocation of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union in March 2017, which was expected to dominate the snap general election campaign. In March First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for a second independence referendum due to Scotland's vote to remain in the EU the previous year. The result was the issue dominated the 2017 general election and, although the SNP remained the largest party, their number of seats was much reduced, with the

Scottish Conservatives The Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party ( gd, Pàrtaidh Tòraidheach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Tory an Unionist Pairty), often known simply as the Scottish Conservatives and colloquially as the Scottish Tories, is a centre-right political par ...

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and the Liberal Democrats gaining a total of 21 seats. Former First Minister Alex Salmond and Westminster leader Angus Robertson were among those who lost their seats. In the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peop ...

, Scottish Labour lost its two MEPs, UKIP lost its seat, the SNP increased its number to three, the Scottish Conservatives held theirs and the

Brexit Party Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit, and was briefly a significant ...

and Liberal Democrats gained one each.

Opinion polling

Seat projections

Campaign events

Television debates

Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Scottish broadcasters hosted television debates. On 20 November, BBC Scotland's flagship political programme, ''

Debate Night Debate Night is BBC Scotland's flagship current affairs debate show, hosted by Stephen Jardine, which airs on Wednesdays nights. History Stephen Jardine was named as the host on 15 February 2019 ahead of the launch of the new BBC Scotland chan ...

'', moderated by

Stephen Jardine Stephen Jardine (born 1963) is a Scottish journalist, broadcaster and presenter. He has worked for the BBC, Scottish Television, GMTV and Radio Tay. Early years Born in Dumfries, Jardine is the son of the late Bill Jardine, a former chairman ...

, hosted a Young Voter's Special with representatives from the main parties where they debated in front of an audience of voters aged under 30. On 3 December, STV hosted a television debate moderated by Colin Mackay and BBC Scotland announced that they would host a debate on 10 December, two days before the election, moderated by Sarah Smith. The Scottish National Party have been represented in UK-wide television debates in addition due to being the third largest party in the

Reaction

Leader's interviews

In addition to television debates, BBC Scotland and STV also interviewed Scottish party leaders on '' The Nine'' and ''

Scotland Tonight ''Scotland Tonight'' is a Scottish news and current affairs programme, covering the two STV franchise areas of Northern and Central Scotland, produced by STV News. The programme is presented by ''STV News at Six'' Central anchor John MacKay on ...

'' in the run-up to the general election, alongside guest commentary too. On 4 December, the four main Scottish party leaders took part in leaders interviews with fictional character Chief Commissioner Cameron Mickelson from the BBC Scotland sitcom, ''

Scot Squad ''Scot Squad'' is a British television mockumentary series about a fictional Scottish police force, made in a fly on the wall style. The show first aired on 27 October 2014 on BBC One Scotland. The show has aired seven series, including spec ...

''.

Results

Votes summary

List of constituencies by party

Target seats

Scottish Conservatives

Scottish Labour

Scottish Liberal Democrats

Scottish National Party

Footnotes

References

{{Scottish elections #Scotland United Kingdom General Election Results In Scotland, 2019 2010s elections in Scotland

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Scotland, United Kingdom general election in