Edinburgh SNP group leader Lesley Macinnes insists by-election defeats 'no barometer' for next year's council elections
‘We're confident we can win back support’ - Cllr Lesley Macinnes
Edinburgh's SNP group leader has insisted the party's defeat in two local by-elections is no guide to what will happen at next year's council elections.
Lesley Macinnes said she still expected the SNP to be returned as the biggest party at the City Chambers despite losing Portobello/Craigmillar to the Greens and Southside/Newington to Labour.
The by-elections were caused by the resignation of two SNP councillors who had been elected to the Scottish Parliament.
The results mean the SNP has been reduced from 17 to 15 councillors, while the Lib Dems have 14, Labour and the Greens are each up one to 12, and the Tories have 10.
The Greens' victory in Portobello/Craigmillar was their first ever by-election win in Edinburgh.
At the last council elections in 2022, the SNP's Kate Campbell topped the poll n the ward with 3,438 first preference votes, 1,339 ahead of Labour in second place.
But on Thursday, Green candidate Lorenzo Martinico received 1,781 first preferences compared with 1,531 for the SNP, and the final round of counting was between the Greens and Labour.
Cllr Macinnes said: “We were naturally disappointed with the result, but I'm not taking it as any kind of barometer for next May.
“We fought a good campaign in Portobello/Craigmillar. It was unfortunate that it went the way it did for us, but we're confident we can win back the support of the people of Portobello and Craigmillar when it comes to May next year.”
She said she was also happy with her party’s campaign in Southside/Newington and added the contest there was always going to be between Labour and the Greens. But she said: “I think the Greens would have expected to take that one.”
The Greens’ win in Portobello/Craigmillar comes after the the Greens won their first ever Holyrood constituency seat at the Scottish Parliament elections in May, when Lorna Slater took Edinburgh Central from the SNP’s Angus Robertson.
And Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer said Thursday’s by-election victory “confirms that we are fighting to win next May’s council elections in Edinburgh”.
After the 2022 local elections, the SNP and the Greens were planning to from a coalition to run the city, but were outmanoeuvred by Labour, who persuaded Lib Dems and Tories to help vote them into power.
Asked if she expected to be working with the Greens after the next election, perhaps even with the Greens as the bigger party, Cllr Macinnes said: “It's almost impossible to predict, but there is a lot of common ground between ourselves and the Greens.
“We're both progressive parties, we both have the interests of the city at the heart of what we're trying to do, so there is a lot of room for discussion there. We won't know what direction that discussion will go until we get the numbers on election day, but there is common ground there.”
But she added: "I am making it my mission to reach out to other parties across the chamber as well because right now the political situation in Edinburgh is quite fluid and we need to look at all the potential options and I think other parties will have to look at all the options as well.
"We will work with anybody in a positive way, apart from Reform. We are open to everything in terms of delivering the right solutions for the city."
Senior Edinburgh Lib Dem councillor Kevin Lang said Thursday’s results were “yet another set of disastrous council by-election results for the SNP in Edinburgh”.
He said: “They have defended four seats in by-elections and they have lost all four of them, to different political parties. Future PhD theses could be written about the failure of the SNP in Edinburgh to replicate their party's success in other parts of the country."