A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 7 June 2001 and all 72 seats in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

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 The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

gained from Alisdair Morgan of the SNP, 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

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

Votes summary

Outcome

The result saw very little change from the last contest in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, 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 Conservatives once again a Scottish MP, their vote actually share fell compared with 1997 and in vote share terms the fell to fourth place. On top of this they failed to win several target seats including Edinburgh Pentlands where former MP

Malcolm Rifkind Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind (born 21 June 1946) is a British politician who served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1986 to 1997, and most recently as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2 ...

failed to regain the seat and

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station **Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the Ph ...

where Labour incumbent

Jim Murphy James Francis Murphy (born 23 August 1967) is a Scottish former politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2014 to 2015 and Secretary of State for Scotland from 2008 to 2010. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Ren ...

substantial increased his majority over the Scottish Conservative Chairman Raymond Robertson. The Conservatives did come close to gaining

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

where Liz Smith came within 50 votes of taking the seat from the SNP.

David McLetchie David William McLetchie CBE (6 August 1952 – 12 August 2013) was a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 1999 to 2005. He was Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Edinburgh Pentlands co ...

, 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 Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader ...

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 The 2003 Scottish Parliament election was the second election of members to the Scottish Parliament. It was held on 1 May 2003 and it brought no change in terms of control of the Scottish Executive. Jack McConnell, the Labour Party MSP, rema ...

. 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 Tommy Sheridan (born 7 March 1966) is a Scottish politician who served as convenor of Solidarity from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) from 1998 to 2004 and as co-convenor of Solidarity from 2 ...

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

{{2001 United Kingdom general election, state=collapsed #Scotland 2001 in Scotland 2000s elections in Scotland

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...