The 20 seats where SNP MPs are fighting for their political lives at the general election
The latest polls don’t look great for the SNP.
Most are predicting they will fall behind Labour as the largest party in Scotland. Others are predicting they could lose up to 35 of their 43 seats.
Regardless of what happens on July 4, it looks likely several SNP MPs will not be re-elected. So who are the SNP MPs at risk of losing their seats at the ballot box?
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Hide AdDeidre Brock
Deidre Brock is standing in Edinburgh North and Leith, a seat she has held since 2015 - at the 2019 election she won with a majority of 12,808.
However, polls suggest she will lose this seat to Labour’s Tracy Gilbert by as little as 1 per cent.
Ms Brock is the shadow House of Commons business minister and was previously shadow leader of the House of Commons. Prior to that she has held numerous roles within the SNP, including COP26 spokeswoman, environment, food and rural affairs spokeswoman, and the shadow SNP Westminster group leader.
The Australian native was previously Deputy Lord Provost of Edinburgh, studied acting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and has appeared on Home and Away.
Alison Thewliss
Alison Thewliss is standing in Glasgow North.
She has been the MP for Glasgow Central since 2015, having won the last election with a majority of 6,474. However, this is one of two constituencies that are being cut from Scotland in the 2024 boundary changes.
Polls suggest she will lose to Labour’s Martin Rhodes by 4 per cent. She is shadow home affairs secretary and prior to becoming an MP was a Glasgow councillor.
Stewart McDonald
Stewart McDonald is standing in Glasgow South - a seat he has held since 2015.
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Hide AdAt the 2019 general election, he won with a majority of 9,005, but he is expected to lose this seat to Labour’s Gordon McKee by 12 per cent.
Mr McDonald is a columnist for The Scotsman and earlier this year was one of a number of MPs to be targeted by a Chinese cyber attack.
John Nicolson
John Nicolson is standing in the new constituency of Alloa and Grangemouth.
He has been the MP for Ochil and South Perthshire since 2019, having won with a majority of 4,498, and prior to this was the MP for East Dunbartonshire between 2015 and 2017.
However, he is expected to lose the fight for Alloa and Grangemouth to Labour’s Brian Leishman, who is a Perth and Kinross councillor, by just 2 per cent, based on recent polling.
Mr Nicolson is the shadow digital, culture, media and sport minister and sits on the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee.
Prior to becoming an MP, Mr Nicolson presented BBC Breakfast and ITV News and was a reporter for BBC Newsnight and BBC Panorama. He was the first ever openly gay presenter on BBC One and in 2022 he won Pink News’ politician of the year.
Hannah Bardell
Hannah Bardell is standing in Livingston - a seat she has held since 2015.
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Hide AdAt the previous general election, she won with a majority of 13,435, but she has been forecast in polling to lose the seat to Labour’s Gregor Poynton by 11 per cent.
She is the shadow foreign affairs secretary and shadow international development minister and before becoming an MP she worked for Alex Salmond, former MEP Ian Hudghton and in 2007 presented SNPtv.
Outside of politics, she worked for STV and GMTV, was employed in the oil and gas industry, and held a role with the US State Department in their Edinburgh consulate.
Anum Qaisar
Anum Qaisar is standing in Airdrie and Shotts, a seat she has held since 2021. She won the seat in a by-election with a majority of 1,757 after Neil Gray stepped down to become an MSP in Holyrood.
However, Ms Qaisar is expected to lose this seat to Labour’s Kenneth Stevenson by 21 per cent.
She is the shadow levelling-up secretary and prior to becoming an MP was a modern studies teacher. Her grandfather immigrated to Scotland from Pakistan in the 1960s.
Kirsten Oswald
Kirsten Oswald is standing in East Renfrewshire, a seat she has held since 2019 with a majority of 5,426.
She also held the seat between 2015 and 2017, but lost the seat for two years to the Conservatives’ Paul Masterton by 4,712 votes.
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Hide AdPolls suggest she will lose this seat again, this time to Labour’s Blair McDougall, who was head strategist for Better Together during the 2014 independence referendum, by 11 per cent.
She is the shadow women and equalities spokeswoman and sat on the House of Commons women and equalities committee.
David Linden
David Linden is standing in Glasgow East, a seat he has held since 2017.
At the 2019 election, he won with a majority of 5,566, but he is expected to lose to Labour’s John Grady by 7 per cent. Mr Linden is the shadow social justice secretary and before becoming an MP worked in finance.
Martin Docherty-Hughes
Martin Docherty-Hughes is standing in West Dunbartonshire - a seat he has held since 2015.
He won the constituency with a majority of 9,553 at the 2019 general election, but he is now forecast to lose the seat to Labour’s Douglas McAllister by 14 per cent.
He is shadow defence secretary and sits on the House of Commons defence committee and defence sub-committee.
Mr Docherty-Hughes became Scotland’s youngest councillor when he was elected to Clydebank District Council at the age of just 21 back in 1991. He is also a former Glasgow councillor.
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Hide AdBefore entering politics he worked in various volunteer organisations both nationally and in West Dunbartonshire.
Alan Brown
Alan Brown is standing for Kilmarnock and Loudon - a seat he has held since 2015.
He is expected to lose this to Labour’s Lillian Jones by 4 per cent, based on recent polling, despite winning a majority of 12,659 at the 2019 election.
Mr Brown sits on the House of Commons Scottish affairs committee and before entering politics worked as a civil engineer, and has a civil engineering degree from Glasgow University.
Carol Monaghan
Carol Monaghan is standing in the new constituency of Glasgow West.
She has represented Glasgow North West since 2015, and in the 2019 general election won with a majority of 8,359.
However, it looks like Labour’s Patricia Ferguson will win the Glasgow West seat by just 1 per cent.
Most recently Ms Monaghan has been shadow education secretary and shadow science, innovation and technology minister, having been a physics and maths teacher in Glasgow.
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Hide AdShe also has a degree in laser physics and optoelectronics from Strathclyde University and has been an education lecturer at Glasgow University.
Stuart McDonald
Stuart McDonald is standing in Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch, but he is expected to lose the fight to Labour’s Katrina Murray by 2 per cent, polling indicates.
Mr McDonald has been the MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East since 2015 and at the 2019 election won with a majority of 12,976. He sits on the House of Commons home affairs committee and is the SNP’s treasurer.
From 2009, he was a researcher at the Scottish Parliament and was Yes Scotland’s head of information during the 2014 independence referendum.
Marion Fellows
Marion Fellows is standing in the new constituency of Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke.
She has been the MP for Motherwell and Wishaw since 2015, having won the 2019 election with a majority of 6,268.
However, she is forecast to lose to Labour’s Pamela Nash, the former MP for Airdrie and Shotts and chief executive of the campaign group Scotland in Union, by 18 per cent.
Before becoming an MP she was a North Lanarkshire councillor and taught business at West Lothian College, holding a degree in accountancy and finance from Heriot Watt University.
Patricia Gibson
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Hide AdPatricia Gibson is standing in North Ayrshire and Arran, a seat she has held since 2015.
At the 2019 general election, she won with a majority of 8,521, but is expected to lose the seat to Labour’s Irene Campbell by 5 per cent.
She is the shadow environment, farming, agriculture and rural affairs minister and sat on the House of Commons backbench business committee.
Before becoming an MP. Ms Gibson was a Glasgow councillor and taught English, having gained an English and politics degree from Glasgow University.
Ms Gibson had a finding of drunken sexual misconduct thrown out on appeal in 2022 because the original investigation was judged to be “materially flawed”. She has always strongly denied the allegations.
Anne McLaughlin
Anne McLaughlin is standing for Glasgow North-East - but polls suggest she might lose this seat to the Labour candidate Maureen Burke.
It could be a tight result - there is less than 1 per cent between the two parties in this constituency, based on recent polling.
Ms McLaughlin represented Glasgow North-East from 2015 until 2017, when she lost the seat to Labour’s Paul Sweeney by just 242 votes.
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Hide AdShe was re-elected in 2019 with a majority of 2,548 and most recently was the SNP’s shadow international development minister.
Before becoming an MP, Ms McLaughlin worked in a care home and for a number of charities, and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
Martyn Day
Martyn Day is standing in Bathgate and Linlithgow, but is expected to lose to Labour’s Kirsteen Sullivan by 13 per cent.
He has been the MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk since 2015 and at the 2019 general election won with a majority of 11,266. Mr Day sat on the petitions committee and prior to becoming an MP was a West Lothian councillor.
Chris Stephens
Chris Stephens is standing in Glasgow South West - a seat he has held since 2015.
At the election in 2019, he won with a majority of 4,900 votes. However, Mr Stephens is expected to lose the seat to Labour’s Zubir Ahmed by 8 per cent.
The SNP politician is the shadow justice secretary and shadow immigration minister and sits on the House of Commons justice committee. Before becoming an MP, he worked for Glasgow City Council and was lead negotiator for Unison.
Richard Thomson
Richard Thomson is standing for Gordon and Buchan, a brand new constituency.
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Hide AdHe has been the MP for Gordon since 2019, winning with a majority of just 819 votes.
However, he is expected to lose to the Conservatives’ Harriet Cross by 4 per cent.
He is the shadow business and trade secretary and sits on the House of Commons standing orders committee.
Elsewhere in politics he was the SNP’s head of campaigns for the 2005 general election and has worked for Stewart Hosie, Alex Salmond and now SNP finance secretary Shona Robison. Before becoming an MP, Mr Thomson worked in finance and was an Aberdeenshire councillor.
Owen Thompson
Owen Thompson is standing in Midlothian - a seat he won in 2019 with a majority of 5,705.
He also held the seat between 2015 and 2017, but lost to Labour’s Danielle Rowley by just 885 votes.
Mr Thompson is now expected to lose the seat again to Labour, this time to Kirsty McNeill. He is the SNP chief whip at Westminster and is the former leader of Midlothian Council.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn had briefly sacked Mr Thompson as the party’s chief whip when he was first appointed in December 2022. Mr Thompson said at the time he was “bemused” by the changes, but was reinstated to the post in September last year.
Gavin Newlands
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Hide AdGavin Newlands is standing in Paisley and Renfrewshire North - a seat he has held since 2015.
At the last general election, he won with a majority of 11,902, but is now expected to lose the seat to Labour’s Alison Tayler by 6 per cent.
He is the shadow transport secretary and sits on the House of Commons transport committee.
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