Lothian East
Scotland · County constituency · East Lothian
About the Lothian East constituency
Lothian East is a county constituency in Scotland. The sitting MP is Douglas Alexander (Labour (Co-op)), MP since July 2024. At the 2024 general election, Labour won with 49.0% to 21.4% for the SNP, a majority of 13,265 votes on a 63.7% turnout. PollCheck's current projection, at the seven-poll average, has Labour on 37.0% and the SNP on 24.2%, a margin of 12.8 points.
Who lives in Lothian East? Constituency demographics
From Scotland's 2022 Census and 2016 EU referendum estimates. Constituency-level data on 2024 boundaries.
How did Lothian East 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 Lothian East
Switch between GE2024 ward winners (modelled estimates, ~4pp average error) and a demographic view from Scotland's 2022 Census. Hover any area for detail. How the map is built ›
How Lothian East voted at the Scottish Parliament election (7 May 2026)
Lothian East sits almost entirely within the Holyrood constituency of East Lothian Coast and Lammermuirs. 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 | Approx. share of Lothian East's area | Winner | Runner-up | Elected MSP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Lothian Coast and Lammermuirs | 94% | SNP 32.7% | Labour 31.6% | Paul McLennan |
| Edinburgh Eastern, Musselburgh and Tranent | 4% | SNP 44.7% | Labour 28.9% | Kate Campbell |
Holyrood 2026 constituency results from official declarations. Overlap percentages are approximate shares of the Westminster seat's land area, not of its electorate. They come from an area overlay of the post-2024 Westminster boundary on simplified Holyrood second-review boundaries (in force from 7 May 2026), so they do not always sum to 100% and small overlaps may be artefacts of the simplified boundaries.
Lothian East within East Lothian
Lothian East sits entirely within East Lothian Council. East Lothian was not due to vote in 2026, so the figures below are the most recent ward results with vote counts available. About this layer ›
Council overlap
| Council | Share of seat |
|---|---|
| East Lothian | 100% |
Most recent council ward results
Latest council result per ward, from the most recent election with vote counts available. How this table is sourced ›
Scottish council wards elect several councillors each by STV, so for these wards the table shows first preferences, not seats: the party with the most first-preference votes and each other party's share. 2022 figures are from the official cast-vote records.
| Ward | GE2024 winner | Latest council first preferences | Shift since GE2024 | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunbar and East Linton | Labour 42.4%vs SNP 25.0% | 2022 SNP 26.8%Labour 25.3%, Conservative 21.4%, Green 15.1%, Lib Dem 10.1%, Others 1.3% | - | 52.3% |
| Haddington and Lammermuir | Labour 51.0%vs SNP 23.8% | 2022 Labour 36.4%SNP 26.2%, Conservative 21.9%, Green 7.4%, Lib Dem 5.5%, Independent 1.5%, Others 1.1% | - | 33.9% |
| Musselburgh East and Carberry | Labour 36.6%vs SNP 36.0% | No council data | - | - |
| Musselburgh West | Labour 36.6%vs SNP 36.0% | No council data | - | - |
| North Berwick Coastal | Labour 40.3%vs SNP 22.1% | 2022 Conservative 39.0%Labour 21.1%, SNP 19.9%, Green 13.2%, Lib Dem 6.2%, Others 0.7% | - | 56.2% |
| Preston / Seton / Gosford | Labour 52.7%vs SNP 25.4% | 2022 Labour 39.7%SNP 29.8%, Conservative 20.5%, Green 5.8%, Lib Dem 3.3%, Others 1.0% | - | 42.5% |
Projection trajectory
PollCheck's projection for Lothian East at each of the last 60 GB polls. Hover the chart for the underlying poll details.
Who has won Lothian East at past general elections?
2024 and notional 2019 rows are on current boundaries; 2010-2017 rows are on the boundaries in force at the time. More on boundaries ›
| Year | Result | MP | Lab | Con | LD | SNP | Majority | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010predecessor | Lab hold | Fiona O'Donnell East Lothian MP | 44.6% | 19.7% | 16.9% | 16.0% | 12,258 | 67.0% |
| 2015predecessor | SNP gain from Lab | George Kerevan East Lothian MP | 31.0% | 19.5% | 2.6% | 42.5% | 6,803 | 74.2%+7.2 |
| 2017predecessor | Lab gain from SNP | Martin Whitfield East Lothian MP | 36.1% | 29.6% | 3.1% | 30.6% | 3,083 | 70.6%-3.6 |
| 2019notional | Scottish National Party winner | Kenny MacAskill East Lothian MP, pre-review boundary | 30.5% | 27.5% | 6.3% | 34.8% | 2,207 | 71.2% |
| 2024 | Lab gain from SNP | Douglas Alexander | 49.0% | 11.5% | 5.5% | 21.4% | 13,265 | 63.7%-7.5 |
Lothian East was created or substantially redrawn by the 2023 boundary review. Pre-2024 rows below are for the predecessor seat East Lothian (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 Lothian East
Five seats with similar demographic profiles to Lothian East. Politics shown for context.
- ↓Leave35.4 / 36.6vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent7.9 / 9.3vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate46.2 / 42.0vs 33.7
- ↓Private rent7.9 / 8.3vs 20.2
- ↓Leave35.4 / 40.3vs 53.2
- ↑Graduate46.2 / 43.5vs 33.7
- ↓Leave35.4 / 37.9vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent7.9 / 7.6vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate46.2 / 41.6vs 33.7
- ↓Leave35.4 / 35.5vs 53.2
- ↑Graduate46.2 / 45.3vs 33.7
- ↓Private rent7.9 / 10.4vs 20.2
- ↓Leave35.4 / 36.8vs 53.2
- ↓Private rent7.9 / 9.0vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate46.2 / 43.1vs 33.7
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
Every figure on this page is computed from the sources below. Read the full methodology ›
Show full source list
- 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 model at the rolling 7-poll average from aggregated GB polls, built from the British Election Study Internet Panel (Fieldhouse et al.), Census 2021 (ONS) and Scotland's Census 2022 (NRS). The trajectory was recalculated with the current model, introduced in autumn 2026.
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