Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire
Scotland · County constituency · Highland borough
About the Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire constituency
Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire is a county constituency in Scotland, covering most or all of Highland. The sitting MP is Mr Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat), first elected in July 2024.
At the 2024 general election, the Liberal Democrats won Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire with 37.8% of the vote, ahead of the SNP on 33.3%, a majority of 2,160 votes. Turnout was 61.7%.
If a general election were held today, PollCheck's projection at the current seven-poll average has the SNP on 35.3% and the Liberal Democrats on 35.0% in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, a margin of 0.3 points, a projected change from the Liberal Democrats since 2024. The projection updates automatically as new polls are added.
Demographically, Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire is a Remain-leaning area (an estimated 41.8% voted Leave in 2016). About 45.4% of residents hold a degree, 66.5% of homes are owner-occupied, and the seat has a median age of about 45 (2021 Census).
Across the last 5 general elections on record, the seat has been won by the SNP 3 times, the Liberal Democrats 2 times (earlier years may be on predecessor boundaries).
Who lives in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire? Constituency demographics
From the 2021 Census and 2016 EU referendum estimates. Constituency-level data on 2024 boundaries.
How did Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire vote in 2024 and how would it vote now?
2024 vote shares from the HoC Library. Current projection is at the 7-poll average.
2024 general election
Current projection
Map of Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire
Switch between ward-level 2024 election winners and a demographic view. Ward winners are Britain Elects' / New Statesman modelled estimates with an average ~4pp margin of error per ward. The demographic view splits the seat into small neighbourhoods (around 800 residents each, from Scotland's 2022 Census). Hover any area for detail.
How Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire voted at the Scottish Parliament election (7 May 2026)
Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire crosses multiple Holyrood boundaries: Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch (77%), Caithness, Sutherland and Ross (16%), Inverness and Nairn (6%). Scotland uses the Additional Member System: voters cast one ballot for a constituency MSP and a second for a regional list. The figures below are the constituency vote.
| Holyrood constituency | Share of Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire | Winner | Runner-up | Elected MSP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch | 77% | Liberal Democrats 38.9% | SNP 36.5% | Andrew Baxter |
| Caithness, Sutherland and Ross | 16% | Liberal Democrats 48.0% | SNP 31.4% | David Green |
| Inverness and Nairn | 6% | SNP 30.4% | Liberal Democrats 29.2% | Emma Roddick |
Holyrood 2026 constituency results from official declarations. Overlap percentages are area-based using the post-2024 Westminster boundary against the new Holyrood second-review boundary (in force from 7 May 2026).
Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire within Highland
The Westminster constituency of Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire sits entirely within Highland Council. Local council elections are a separate ballot from Westminster general elections - English councils rotate their election cycles and Highland was not due to vote in 2026, so the figures below show the most recent council ward results available.
Council overlap
| Council | Share of seat |
|---|---|
| Highland | 100% |
Recent council by-elections
Council ward by-elections held inside this seat, most recent first. The result column shows which party won; the share column shows the top three parties’ vote shares on the day.
| Date | Ward | Result | Top 3 vote shares |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Dec 2025 | Fort William & Ardnamurchan | LD GAIN from SNP | LD 40% Con 29% Ref 10% |
| 25 Sep 2025 | Caol and Mallaig | Ind GAIN from Grn | LD 36% Grn 32% Con 17% |
| 23 Nov 2024 | Fort William and Ardnamurchan | LD HOLD | — |
| 27 Sep 2024 | Inverness Central | Lab HOLD | — |
| 13 Apr 2024 | Inverness South | Ind GAIN from LD | — |
Most recent council ward results
Latest council winner per ward. Where the council held a May 2026 election, those results are shown; otherwise we show the most recent available ward result (via DCLEAPIL, 2014-2024), or, where the seat was uncontested at the last election, the current sitting councillor from OpenCouncilData. The "Shift since GE2024" column is only computed for May 2026 results - earlier council votes pre-date the GE, so no directional shift is shown.
| Ward | GE2024 winner | Latest council winner | Shift since GE2024 | Turnout |
|---|
Projection trajectory
PollCheck's projection for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire at each of the last 60 GB polls. Hover the chart for the underlying poll details.
Who has won Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire at past general elections?
2024 result is on current boundaries. The 2019 row is the UK Parliament's notional recalculation onto the 2024 boundaries (directly comparable to 2024). The 2010, 2015 and 2017 rows are on the boundaries in force at the time and aren't directly comparable.
| Year | Result | MP | Lab | Con | LD | Majority | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010predecessor | LD hold | Charles Kennedy Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP | 15.1% | 12.2% | 52.6% | 13,070 | 67.2% |
| 2015predecessor | SNP gain from LD | Ian Blackford Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP | 4.9% | 6.2% | 35.9% | 5,124 | 77.2%+10.0 |
| 2017predecessor | SNP hold | Ian Blackford Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP | 12.2% | 24.9% | 20.9% | 5,919 | 71.7%-5.5 |
| 2019notional | Scottish National Party winner | Ian Blackford Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP, pre-review boundary | 9.4% | 23.3% | 15.1% | 12,865 | 66.0% |
| 2024 | LD gain from SNP | Angus MacDonald | 13.0% | 5.2% | 37.8% | 2,160 | 61.7%-4.3 |
Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire was created or substantially redrawn by the 2023 boundary review. Pre-2024 rows below are for the predecessor seat Ross, Skye and Lochaber (the seat that covered most of this area), so vote shares and majorities aren’t directly comparable to the post-2024 figures.
Constituencies most like Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire
Five seats with similar demographic profiles to Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire. Politics shown for context.
- ↑Graduate45.4 / 46.9vs 33.7
- ↓Leave41.8 / 40.7vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent11.9 / 10.6vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate45.4 / 43.6vs 33.7
- ↓Leave41.8 / 45.0vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent11.9 / 13.0vs 20.2
- ↓Leave41.8 / 40.3vs 53.2
- ↑Graduate45.4 / 43.5vs 33.7
- ↓Private rent11.9 / 8.3vs 20.2
- ↓Leave41.8 / 39.7vs 53.2
- ↑Graduate45.4 / 49.3vs 33.7
- ↓Private rent11.9 / 13.8vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate45.4 / 43.6vs 33.7
- ↓Leave41.8 / 43.4vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent11.9 / 11.1vs 20.2
What would change this seat?
Move the sliders to set national vote shares. The per-seat projection updates live. Reset returns to the current 7-poll average.
Related
Sources
- 2024 general election results · UK Parliament Election Results portal and House of Commons Library briefing CBP-10009.
- Notional 2019 results on 2024 boundaries · UK Parliament Election Results portal. Recalculated by Parliament; carries assumptions about how 2019 voters would have distributed across the redrawn boundaries.
- Historic general election results (2010-2017) · House of Commons Library historic results files (on the boundaries in force at the time).
- Ward-level GE2024 estimates · Britain Elects / New Statesman - article by Ben Walker, underlying spreadsheet. Modelled from constituency totals; average ~4pp per-ward MoE.
- May 2026 council ward results · Democracy Club via PollCheck's locals 2026 dataset.
- Earlier council ward results (2014-2024) · DCLEAPIL v1.0 (Jason Leman, drawing on Andrew Teale's LEAP dataset and Democracy Club).
- Demographics · ONS Census 2021 (England and Wales), aggregated to constituency level using the ONS LSOA21 -> PCON24 best-fit lookup.
- EU referendum 2016 estimates · Constituency-level Leave vote estimates (Hanretty 2017 method).
- MP details and Cabinet roles · UK Parliament Members API. MP photos are fetched live from the same source.
- Boundary geometry and lookups · ONS Open Geography Portal (PCON24 boundaries, LSOA21 boundaries, LSOA21-WD24-LAD24 best-fit lookup).
- Current projection and trajectory · PollCheck's demographic swingometer applied to the rolling 7-poll average from aggregated GB polls. Not a true MRP - vote-share movements are applied through per-constituency sensitivity multipliers derived from demographic regressions.
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