Edinburgh's political map: Victory for campaign to save Leith name in constituency shake-up

Proposals for a shake-up of constituencies ahead of the next Scottish Parliament elections would have seen the name of Leith disappear as seats were given new titles.

Latest proposals ditched some controversial plans | supplied

But after a flood of protests, Boundaries Scotland, the body behind the plans, has agreed Leith should be restored to the name of the constituency it is part of.

Ben Macpherson, MP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, announced the victory in a tweet, saying: "I’ve been alerted by @boundaries_scot that this campaign has been successful: the new proposed constituency will now be called Edinburgh North Eastern *and Leith*! Thanks to all who signed the petition & a big congrats to @DeidreBrock, who passionately led the campaign with me."

Politicians from parties across the spectrum had called for the Leith name to be kept, insisting the port was a distinct community with its own identity, history and heritage which ought to be recognised.

The latest proposed boundary changes for Scotland, published in April, put Leith in a new constituency called Edinburgh North Eastern, which also included  Craigentinny, Broughton, Abbeyhill, Meadowbank, Willowbrae and Duddingston.

The Evening News ran a "Keep Leith" campaign in 2002 | TSPL

But it is understood Boundaries Scotland met earlier this week and agreed, in view of the large volume of public representations received, that the constituency should have "and Leith" added to its name.

The change is not expected to be announced officially until other amendments to the proposals, which cover the whole of Scotland, are finalised in the autumn.

It's not the first time that Leith was due to be dropped from the electoral map.  In 2002, the Evening News ran a "Keep Leith" campaign after a review of Westminster constituencies proposed renaming Edinburgh North & Leith as Edinburgh North East. More than 3,000 people sent in coupons calling for Leith to be included in the constituency name and the planned change was abandoned.

Leith used to be a constituency of its own, whose first MP in 1918 was William Wedgwood Benn, a Liberal who would later switch to Labour and the father of Tony Benn. Before that, dating back to 1832, Leith was part of a seat known as Leith Burghs, which also included Musselburgh and Portobello. It was in 1997 that it was linked with areas like the New Town and Stockbridge to form Edinburgh North & Leith.

Reviews of constituency boundaries are carried out on a regular basis in an effort to keep the number of voters in each seat roughly equal. The original proposals in the current review, published in May 2023, included controversial plans which would have put Portobello into Midlothian North & Musselburgh constituency, making it the only seat in Scotland to straddle three local authority areas.

And another proposal would have seen a new Edinburgh Forth & Linlithgow seat, takin in parts of the Capital like Cramond, Muirhouse, Kirkliston and South Queensferry as well as Linlithgow, Winchburgh and Broxburn.

But the plans were ditched, making way for the latest proposals in April and whatever further tweaks might yet emerge in what are expected to be Boundaries Scotland’s final recommendations in the autumn. .