General election 2024: All you need to know about the contest for Livingston

It’s just over 40 years since Livingston became a constituency on its own and Labour’s Robin Cook was elected as its first MP.

The seat, previously part of a single West Lothian constituency, remained in Labour hands up until 2015, when Hannah Bardell won it for the SNP with a majority of nearly 17,000. She has held onto it in the two subsequent elections, but this time it looks like it’s going to be close. Labour has set is sights on winning, but Ms Bardell is working hard to hang on.

The SNP's Hannah Bardell is facing a challenge from Labour's Gregor Poynton | collage

“It'll go down to the wire,” she says. “I would like to think what will go in my favour is my track record as a local MP, being from the area, working hard for my constituents and getting really good results.

“I think our message is resonating with people. People can see the polls south of the border - Labour don't need to win any seats in Scotland to get this wild ‘super-majority’ that's predicted. I’ve spoken to a few people who were thinking of voting Labour and have talked them round.”

But she says there is “understandably” a lot of apathy around. “A lot of folk are scunnered with politics and just feel they're being done in from every side - the cost of living, mortgage rates, austerity - and really feeling the pinch.”

However, she says the situation is also making some people more interested in independence. “Perhaps Brexit pushed them towards it, but all the stuff that's happened since then has pushed them even further.”

And she believes local controversies, including the closure of swimming pools and a threat to Howden Park arts centre, could also influence people’s votes. “Labour and the Conservatives are in power together in the local council, which folk have started to realise more recently because of the threat of Howden Park closing and the swimming pools - Broxburn and Livingston Bubbles were shut.

“When they were slated for closure, the council didn't lift a finger. It happened very quickly and there was very little transparency.  There were local groups who would have been ready to step in and set up a community development trust but just didn't get the chance.”

Bus services in the area are also an issue. And she says Gaza comes up on the doorstep too. “People very upset with the way the UK has behaved and Labour has  behaved, and they’re very supportive of our stance.”

Labour candidate Gregor Poynton was born and brought up in Falkirk but has come under fire because he lives and works in London - although he says as candidate he is “primarily based here”. And he promises: “If I was fortunate enough to be elected I would live in the constituency.”

He points out his links with the constituency go back to 2005, when as a Labour Party organiser he worked full-time on the by-election which followed Robin Cook’s death. Later, Livingston was also one of the seats he was responsible for as a Scottish organiser.and he says he has maintained links with the local party over the years.

He also worked at Labour head office on election strategy and for Jim Murphy when he was Scottish Labour leader.

And for a five-year spell from 2009 he worked for Blue State Digital, famous for working on Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. It saw him helping to plan election strategies for progressive parties in the French presidential election in 2012, when Francois Hollande won, and for the Congress Party in India.

His strategy for this election is telling people it is a choice between five more years of the Tories or change with a Labour government, and underlining that only a vote for Labour will deliver that change.

“It’s close between ourselves and the SNP here,” he says. “The people who have voted Labour in past are voting Labour again. And for a number of people who voted SNP in the past, two things are pushing them towards Labour this time - a general sense that the SNP have lost their way over the last couple of years, but the overriding thing is that this election is about who's going to run the country at a UK level and they get that it’s only Labour who can replace the Tories. The thing that mattress most to them is getting rid of the Tories.”

Local issues, he says, include frustration in East Calder at the lack of progress over a much-needed new medical centre; and local bus services, both in Livingston itself and the villages and towns on the outskirts. “Lothian Country taking over from McGill's has improved reliability but there are many places where the buses are still very infrequent.”

Tory candidate Damian Doran-Timson admits the UK-wide polls are “not great for the party” but claims in Scotland it looks “a bit better”.  And he says: “II think I’ve been helped a bit that I’m seven years in as a councillor and people have seen me at work. I think I’m going to get more support than maybe the national polls say. People are tired of the SNP.”

His priorities include promoting the area as a business location. “Where we are, bang in the centre with all the road and rail links, we should have businesses falling over themselves to come to West Lothian and it just doesn't happen. One of the real focuses I would have would be to get out there and attract businesses to the area and ensure sustainable better quality jobs were available.”

Debbie Ewen, who has taken early retirement from an investment management company, is standing for Alex Salmond’s Alba party and says people are now more open to listening to what it has to say.

“I think they do feel Alba has a better approach.  Some feel the SNP roll out independence near an election, people vote for them on the independence question and then after election that goes back in its box and it's the side issues they concentrate on.”

But she says there is a lot of apathy, particularly in the younger age groups. “Most of the people aged 25-35 that I’ve spoken to, say ‘I don’t trust any of you, not voting’. It’s sad if trust has got so low that they feel there's no point in voting, their voice doesn’t matter.”

Cameron Glasgow, who was the youngest candidate in Scotland when he stood in Livingston for the Greens at the last general election at the age of 19, is standing again. “This election is going to be about the climate,” he says.

“Every vote for the Scottish Greens is a vote to make whoever forms the next government put the climate emergency higher up the agenda. I got involved in politics because I was scared for my future and I was scared for my generation - and that still stands. 

“At 23, I’m likely to see some of the worst of climate change in the 2050s and 2060s and that spurs me on to want action. Over the last few years we've seen a little bit of Green influence on government and on councils - that spurs me on to make sure we see even more of that in Scotland and across the UK.”

Lib Dem candidate Caron Lindsay says the NHS is the hot topic with voters. “People are talking about not being able to see a GP, NHS dentistry being almost non-existent and long waits for hospital treatment. People don’t feel they have been well served by the Conservatives or the SNP.” And she says there has been a good response to UK Lib Dem leader Ed Davey.

The Reform UK candidate is David McLennan, a former policeman turned property landlord from West Calder.

Candidates

Hannah Mary Bardell - Scottish National Party (SNP)  

Damian Joseph Doran-Timson - Scottish Conservative and Unionist  

Debbie Ewen - Alba Party for independence    

Cameron Glasgow - Scottish Greens   

Caron Lindsay - Scottish Liberal Democrats  

David McLennan - Reform UK

Gregor Arthur Poynton - Scottish Labour Party

2019 result

Hannah Bardell SNP 25,617 46.9 per cent

Damian Timson Con 12,182 22.3 per cent

Caitlin Kane Lab 11,915 21.8 per cent

Charles Dundas Lib Dem 3,457 6.3 per cent

Cameron Glasgow Green 1,421 2.6 per cent

SNP majority 13,435

Turnout 66.3 per cent