Edinburgh Western

Edinburgh Western (Gaelic: Dùn Èideann an Iar) was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering part of the City of Edinburgh council area. Under the additional-member system used for elections to the Scottish Parliament, the seat elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election, and was also one of nine constituencies in the Lothian electoral region, which elected seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole. The constituency was created ahead of the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, when it replaced the former Edinburgh West constituency.

As a result of the second periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries in 2025, Edinburgh Western was abolished. The bulk of the seat formed the new constituency of Edinburgh North Western from the 2026 Scottish Parliament election. A portion was also transferred to the new Edinburgh Northern constituency.

Electoral region

The Lothian electoral region was also abolished as a result of second periodic review, with the area covered now mostly forming parts of the new Edinburgh and Lothians East and Central Scotland and Lothians West regions, with a small portion also being transferred to the South Scotland region.

For the first election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 the constituencies used were identical to those already in use for the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, and thus there was a Scottish Parliament constituency of Edinburgh West, which shared the name and boundaries of the existing Edinburgh West House of Commons constituency. Ahead of the 2005 United Kingdom general election the boundaries of constituencies for the House of Commons were reviewed, whilst being retained for elections to the Scottish Parliament. There is now no longer any link between the two sets of boundaries. Ahead of the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, Socttish Parliament boundaries were reviewed, and Edinburgh West was largely replaced with Edinburgh Western, which was defined using the following electoral wards of the City of Edinburgh Council:

Election	Member	Party
	2011	Colin Keir	SNP
	2016	Alex Cole-Hamilton	Liberal Democrats

2021 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Western
Party	Candidate	Constituency	Regional
Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Alex Cole-Hamilton	25,578	54.7	12.8	11,923	25.5	4.6
	SNP	Sarah Masson	15,693	33.5	0.9	14,409	30.7	1.4
	Conservative	Sue Webber	2,798	6.0	8.3	9,350	20.0	5.6
	Labour	Margaret Graham	2,515	5.4	4.0	5,140	11.0	0.6
	Green	4,101	8.7	1.8
	Alba	614	1.3	New
	All for Unity	240	0.5	New
	Animal Welfare	237	0.5	New
	Scottish Family	227	0.5	New
	Scottish Libertarian	Daniel Fraser	201	0.4	New	107	0.2	New
	Abolish the Scottish Parliament	94	0.2	New
	Freedom Alliance (UK)	90	0.2	New
	Women's Equality	86	0.2	0.6
	Reform	64	0.1	New
	Communist	44	0.1	New
	UKIP	42	0.1	1.4
	Independent	Ashley Graczyk	27	0.1	New
	SDP	25	0.1	New
	Renew	9	0.0	New
Majority	9,885	21.2	13.7
Valid votes	46,785		46,829
Invalid votes	116		67
Turnout	46,901	71.5	6.8	46,895	71.5	6.8
	Liberal Democrats hold	Swing	6.9
Notes

In 2021, Edinburgh Western set the record for the most votes ever cast for a single candidate in a Scottish Parliament election.

2016 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Western
Party	Candidate	Constituency	Region
Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Alex Cole-Hamilton	16,645	41.9	14.1	8,321	20.9	9.0
	SNP	Toni Giugliano	13,685	34.4	1.4	12,835	32.2	5.9
	Conservative	Sandy Batho	5,686	14.3	0.8	10,199	25.6	10.8
	Labour	Cat Headley	3,750	9.4	12.0	4,624	11.6	5.9
	Green	2,760	6.9	1.8
	UKIP	594	1.5	0.7
	Women's Equality	309	0.8	New
	RISE	115	0.3	New
	Solidarity	101	0.3	0.2
Majority	2,960	7.5	N/A
Valid votes	39,766		39,858
Invalid votes	124		55
Turnout	39,890	64.7	5.0	39,913	64.7	5.1
	Liberal Democrats gain from SNP	Swing
Notes

2011 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Western
Party	Candidate	Constituency	Region
Votes	%	±%	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Colin Keir	11,965	35.8	N/A	12,747	38.1	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Margaret Smith	9,276	27.7	N/A	3,988	11.9	N/A
	Labour	Lesley Hinds	7,164	21.4	N/A	5,870	17.5	N/A
	Conservative	Gordon Lindhurst	5,047	15.1	N/A	4,952	14.8	N/A
	Independent	Margo MacDonald	2,707	8.1	N/A
	Green	1,728	5.2	N/A
	All-Scotland Pensioners Party	424	1.3	N/A
	UKIP	268	0.8	N/A
	BNP	200	0.6	N/A
	Liberal	156	0.5	N/A
	Socialist Labour	131	0.4	N/A
	Scottish Christian	92	0.3	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	92	0.3	N/A
	CPA	66	0.2	N/A
	Solidarity	28	0.1	N/A
	Independent	Ken O'Neil	12	0.0	N/A
	Independent	Mev Brown	6	0.0	N/A
	Independent	David Hogg	6	0.0	N/A
Majority	2,689	7.9	N/A
Valid votes	33,452		33,473
Invalid votes	152		99
Turnout	33,604	59.6	N/A	33,572	59.6	N/A
	SNP win (new seat)
Notes