13 May, 2026
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A round-up of key events from the 2026 Holyrood elections
The SNP won a total of 57 seats, Scottish Labour and Reform UK Scotland hold 17...
View Details- The SNP won a total of 57 seats, Scottish Labour and Reform UK Scotland hold 17 seats each and jointly form the opposition in parliament.
- The Scottish Greens hold 15 seats, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party have 12 seats and the Scottish Liberal Democrats hold 10 seats.
- There was a lower turnout for this year’s elections (53.2%) compared with 2021 (63.5%) – a drop of over 10%, showing a great deal of voter apathy this time around.
- There are 64 new MSPs sitting in Holyrood. Of this number, 48 are in rural/semi-rural constituencies and regional areas.
- Lorna Slater won the first Scottish Greens seat in Edinburgh Central, taking the seat from Angus Robertson, who had held this seat for the SNP since the 2021 election.
- The Scottish Conservative party retained four constituency seats:
- Aberdeenshire West – Alexander Burnett
- Dumfriesshire – Craig Hoy
- Galloway and Dumfries West – Finlay Carson
- Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire – Rachael Hamilton
- The Scottish Liberal Democrats gained four constituency seats:
- Strathkelvin and Bearsden – Adam Harley
- Edinburgh Northern – Sanne Dijkstra-Downie
- Caithness, Sutherland and Ross – David Green
- Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch – Andrew Baxter
- And retained three seats:
- Liam McArthur – Orkney Islands
- Edinburgh North Western – Alex Cole-Hamilton
- Fife North East – Willie Rennie
- The Scottish Labour Party retained two constituency seats:
- Dumbarton - Jackie Baillie
- Edinburgh Southern - Daniel Johnson
- The Scottish Labour Party also gained one seat in Na h-Eileanan an Iar with Donald McKinnon elected to represent the constituency, and taking this seat from Alasdair Allan.
- The Scottish Greens gained two constituency seats:
- Edinburgh Central – Lorna Slater
- Glasgow Southside - Holly Bruce
- SNP gained the following constituency seats:
- Shetland - Hannah Goodlad
- Eastwood – Kirsten Oswald
- All 17 seats taken by Reform UK Scotland were on the Regional list
- The Highlands and Islands Region was the last to declare in Scotland – taking more than 17 hours for the Inverness count to announce the winners on the regional list.
- Read more >> SPICe general election Scotland 2026 results and analysis
