General election 2024: Everything you need to know about the contest in Edinburgh East & Musselburgh

Before Tommy Sheppard won the seat for the SNP in 2015, Edinburgh East had been in Labour hands for 80 years.  

Mr Sheppard, co-founder of The Stand comedy club was re-elected in 2017 and increased his majority in 2019. But now Labour is hoping to take it back and it looks like a close fight.

Edinburgh Est & Musselburgh is looking like a close fight between Labour's Chris Murray and the SNP's Tommy Sheppard | TSPL

The constituency stretches from the seaside at Portobello to the Castle and the Old Town, taking in Craigentinny, Easter Road, Duddingston and Craigmillar on the way. And with the latest boundary changes, it also includes part of Musselburgh again - the Honest Toun was also part of the constituency between 1997 and 2005.

Mr Sheppard says he has been surprised both by the smallness of Labour's offering and the scale of the Tories' collapse.  "The degree of change people are being offered is probably more minimal than it has ever been.  And the extent of the Tory meltdown is absolutely astonishing.

"As always with a Westminster election, we are fighting very hard to get the ear of the electorate because they are constantly bombarded by 24-hour London news media who pretend we don't exist. Most of the election coverage does not feature us, so we're clearly at a disadvantage.  

"But it's never been so easy to offer an alternative to Westminster - people are beginning to listen to what we're saying about the public spending cuts that are baked into the current plans and the need to row back on some of the terrible attacks on the poor."

But he acknowledges it is a close fight in his seat. "It's all to play for," he says.  

"I'm fighting against a lot of people, including people who have supported me in the past, who are so desperate to get the Tories out that they are going to hold their noses and vote Labour. I have to persuade them they don't need to do that.  

"I feel the momentum is with me and with the SNP on that because people know the Tories are toast. Keir Starmer is going to be Prime Minister.  The question for us here is, given that is going to happen, who do you think will best advocate for your interests?"

He says many of the issues people are concerned about are Holyrood or council responsibilities rather than Westminster's. But he adds: "At the end of the day it all comes back to money - and that is relevant on July 4."

Mr Sheppard believes international concerns, including Gaza, could also affect the result. “This constituency, probably more than most, is very socially and politically engaged - you will find a branch of pretty much any campaign group in the world here. I have more constituency engagement on Gaza, for example, than I think any of my colleagues.”

He says 3,000 constituents have contacted him about the plight of people in Gaza. And he says some voters have told him they won't vote Labour because of the party leader's initial stance on the matter. "They cannot forgive Keir Starmer for those comments about it being ok to cut off food and water to civilians."

Labour’s candidate is Chris Murray, who works with local councils to combat human trafficking. He has previously worked with Save the Children, and with the Foreign Office at the British embassy in Paris on migration issues and chaired a charity working with destitute migrants.

He is the son of Margaret Curran, who was a Labour MSP from the start of devolution in 1999 and served in ministerial roles in the Labour-Lib Dem coalition which ran Scotland until 2007. She was elected to Westminster in 2010 and later became Shadow Scottish Secretary, but lost her seat in 2015.

Mr Murray grew up in Glasgow and studied in England and the Unites States. He moved to Edinburgh nine years ago and he has been Labour’s candidate in the seat for the past year.

"I do genuinely feel very positive about it,” he says. “The Labour vote is very enthusiastic - people who want the Tories out and want to see a more progressive government are really enthusiastic about that.  The SNP vote is depressed - they feel they have not got either their goal of independence, or the delivery they trusted their party for. People say ‘I was Labour before, then I was SNP, I think I'm coming back to Labour this time’. 

“The NHS is a real concern for people - especially after the pandemic and the impact on young people; so many people are on a waiting list; a big issue in parts of the constituency is people just unable to get GP appointments, that's really important to you if you need it.”

Mr Murray says the cost of living is another major issue, particularly housing costs. “House prices are really high, but young people who move to Edinburgh to start their career just cannot rent - the rental market is broken.

“There are also big issues in Musselburgh about the food defence scheme; there are a lot of cultural organisations in the constituency and the cultural economy isn’t supported - venues are struggling to stay open, and struggling to retain staff.”

He also cites sewage as a serious concern. “The beaches of Portobello and Musselburgh are amazing - personally they saved my mental health during lockdown - but in Scotland we pump untreated human sewage into the sea. In England they at least monitor it, in Scotland we don’t even monitor it.”

And behind so many of the problems, he says, lies the Tories' economic instability. “We're in a situation where we have very high taxes, very low economic growth and very poor public services - it’s the worst of all worlds. A Labour government stabilising the economy and getting investment in will mean we can have real change.

Conservative candidate Marie-Clair Munro, Tory councillor for Morningside and the party's transport spokeswoman on the council, says despite the SNP-Labour dominance of the seat, there are "thousands of quiet Conservatives" in the constituency. 

"When I've been out door-knocking I've had a very good response from people, who want to talk about public services and how they can be improved, as well as the cost of living, keeping tax low, as well as devolved issues like the NHS and education.  Transport has come up a lot. and getting our roads mended.  What has not come up is independence - people are not talking about it, they're not interested in it." 

Lib Dem Charles Dundas says the campaign feels “very positive”. “I think the prospect of the Conservatives losing power nationally buoys everyone up, other than the Conservatives.”

He says In Musselburgh, access to GPs is a key issue. “It's a big factor in many pople's lives, so I was pleased to see it put at number one in the Lib Dem manifesto nationally, making sure people can see their GP as soon as possible.”

Green Amanda Grimm, who used to work for arts organisations and now works for a Green MSP, says her party’s messages about the need to act over the climate emergency and create a “fairer” economy resonate with voters. She too names housing as a big issue and sewage at Portobello and Fisherrow Sands as particular local concerns.

Reform UK’s candidate is management consultant Derek Winton, who says he became politically active in response to the Covid lockdown. And there is an independent candidate, Jane Gould, a member of Edinburgh People, a newly launched group which argues career politicians need to be replaced by people who will “represent the interests of Edinburgh people”.

Candidates

Charles Dundas - Scottish Liberal Democrats

Jane Mackenzie Gould - Independent 

Amanda Faye Grimm - Scottish Greens

Marie-Clair Munro - Scottish Conservative and Unionist

Chris Murray - Scottish Labour Party

Tommy Sheppard - Scottish National Party (SNP)

Derek Steven Winton - Reform UK

2019 result

Tommy Sheppard SNP 23,165 48.4 per cent

Sheila Gilmore Lab 12,748 26.7 per cent

Eleanor Price Con 6,549 13.7 per cent

Jill Reilly Lib Dem 3,289 6.9 per cent

Claire Miller Green 2,064 4.3 per cent

SNP majority 10,417

Turnout 68.9 per cent