General election 2024: Lib Dem Christine Jardine boosts majority in Edinburgh West

Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine always looked safe in her Edinburgh West seat despite the major shifts at play in this election - but she not only held on, she quadrupled her majority.

Her margin of victory increased from 3,769 last time to 16,470. “It’s the biggest majority the party has ever won in Edinburgh West,” she said after the declaration. “I’m also the first Liberal Democrat to be elected three times to Edinburgh West. It’s a fantastic night for us as a local party, but I think it’s also, on the wider stage, a fantastic night for Liberal Democrats and liberal democracy in this country.”

Lib Dem Christine Jardine acknowledges her victory in Edinburgh West on the stage at the count. | SWNS

In her speech she thanked everyone involved in the election for “showing that in this country we can do democracy, we do it well and when we want change we go to the ballot box and we choose it.”

SNP candidate Euan Hyslop said the party had fared better in Edinburgh West than in many other places. “We managed to hold onto our core vote, managed to stave off a tide of Labour votes and kept a strong, convincing second place. We ran a positive campaign, but ultimately there’s a lot of apathy out there and the turnout was incredibly low.

“We lost some votes to the Greens, lost some votes to Labour - though not as much as in other parts of the country - but a lot of our voters just never turned out to vote. There is work we have to do there to make sure that at the next elections in 2026 those communities’ voices are heard.”

Some projections had suggested Labour could take second place, but candidate Michael Davidson was still pleased with the result, which saw them move from fourth to third. The Tories were fourth, Reform fifth and the Greens sixth.

Christine Anne Jardine - Scottish Liberal Democrats: 26,645

Euan Hyslop - Scottish National Party (SNP): 10,175

Michael Colin Davidson - Scottish Labour Party: 7,854

Alastair Shields - Scottish Conservative and Unionist: 2,897

Otto Inglis - Reform UK: 2,209

James Konrad Puchowski - Scottish Greens: 2,100

David Henry - Independent: 363

Nick Horing - Independent (EP): 143

Tam Laird - Scottish Libertarian Party: 85

Lib Dem majority 16,470

Turnout: 68.78%