General election 2024: All you need to know about Edinburgh West

Donald Gorrie ended more than 65 years of Tory dominance in Edinburgh West when he won the seat for the Lib Dems in 1997 - and the party has held it at every election since, except for 2015 when it went to the SNP.

Christine Jardine has been the MP since 2017 and had a majority of 3,769 at the last election.  The seat includes Drylaw, Murrayfield, Corstorphine, Ratho, Kirklston, Cramond and South Queensferry.

Lib Dem Christine is being challenged y the SNP's Euan Hyslop and Labour's Michael Davidson | collage

Ms Jardine is cautious when asked how the campaign is going.  "I don't take anything for granted. Does it feel as if it's good? Yeah, we are getting a positive reception on the doorstep."

She says the state of the NHS is the main issue people raise, which fits well with the Lib Dems’ theme for the election.   "The centrepiece of our campaign is that this is the electron where we have to save the NHS and improve social care, get people out of hospital quicker, which allows you to address waiting times, you get people back to work and you address the problems we have in the economy."

She highlights the difficulty of getting GP appointments and the shortage of dentists and the need to change GPs' pension conditions to encourage them to stay working for longer.

"If the UK government is putting more money into health, then there is more money comes to Scotland and it will make a difference to the NHS generally.”

Other key issues include the state of the roads, fears about the impact on state schools of Labour's plan to charge VAT on private school fees, and of course the cost of living. "What we have been through in the past five years has had a huge impact on people's lives and they have lost faith in both the Conservatives and the SNP."

And Ms Jardine is particularly critical of the SNP record while holding the majority of Scottish seats in the Commons.  "What have they done at Westminster in the time they've had all those seats? They've done nothing but argue about independence when there's a lot of things that could have been achieved for Scotland.  They haven't used that opportunity."

The SNP's candidate in Edinburgh West on July 4 is Euan Hyslop, a councillor for Drum Brae / Gyle since 2022 and owner of a couple of cafes in Corstorphine and Roseburn.

He says the cost of living means a lot of people are feeling the squeeze. "Even in areas you might describe as middle-class areas, families are feeling the impact on their mortgages."   And in the more deprived parts of the constituency, like Drylaw, he says there is "a sense of desperation".

"People are wanting change and what we're saying is we can be part of that change in West Edinburgh. We have been represented by the Lib Dems for some time now both at the Scottish Parliament, our MP and a lot of the councillors.  I don't think it's very good for the health of our democracy to have the dominance of one political party to such an extent."

Mr Hyslop continues: "I'm standing on a platform about pushing the incoming Labour government, which we assume it will be, further to the left on things like public spending so we can see more investment in our NHS and investment back into public services and local government."

He says the cost of living is also hitting small businesses, particularly in hospitality and tourism, key sectors of the economy in Edinburgh. "They are really feeling the squeeze with the cost of food going up, as well as rent and energy costs.  It also means less footfall, but the UK government is not doing anything in terms of VAT to encourage people back into the streets and alleviate the pressures on businesses.  We're calling for a reduced VAT rate for hospitality and tourism so we can get a bit more  growth back in the economy."

Labour's Michael Davidson is a first-time candidate, born and raised in the constituency - he went to Fox Covert primary school and Craigmount High. He works in heat pumps and is enthusiastic about Labour's plans for Great British Energy, a publicly-owned clean energy company which will help the move to net zero.

"Energy bills do come up a lot on the doorstep," he says. "The bills have come down since the very worst of the crisis,  but it's still very much at the forefront of people's minds. We're the only party that has a long-term strategic solution to that with GB Energy bringing electricity bills down long term."

The issue voters mention most often, however, is the state of the roads, he says. Mr Davidson says: "Councillors are dealing with the fact there's not anywhere enough money in local government to be able to solve that, so I'm saying that's something we want to deal with, that the Labour council is doing its best to fix the potholes but we want to make sure the funding  coming from the Scottish government is fair."

Labour has been in fourth place at the last three general elections in Edinburgh West. but at least one projection puts them second this time. Mr Davidson says: "We're campaigning to win. We're under no illusions, we've got a big uphill struggle, but there's a lot of positive feeling on the doorstep, The Lib Dems often dine out on not being the SNP - call me old fashioned, but politics should be about what you are rather than what you're not.  We're putting to people that we're the genuine third alternative here and we're getting a really positive response about that."

Tory candidate Alastair Shields once served as a Lib Dem councillor in Almond ward, covering the part of the constituency including Cramond, Kirkliston and Queensferry. But he quit the party after failing to be reselected, sitting as an independent for the rest of his term. He joined the Tories in 2017 and has been active behind the scene, but this is his first time standing for election since his council days.

He is upbeat despite the party's current fortunes. He says Douglas Ross's decision during the election campaign to quit as Scottish Tory leader is not raised on the doorstep. "You're always going to get people referring to what happened in the last two or three years with Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and so on, but I don't know of anyone in the party who has endorsed what happened there.   But it's about moving forward and people are wiser to what's happening just now - the economic improvement, the drop in inflation."

The Greens are fielding linguist and translator James Puckowski as their candidate. Otto Inglis is the Reform UK candidate and Tam Laird is standing for the Scottish Libertarian Party.

There are also two independents.  David Henry was in the SNP, then joined Alba, but resigned to stand as an independent, arguing that too many MPs "do not represent what is important to ordinary citizens".  Nick Horing is a member of Edinburgh People, a new political grouping which wants to replace "career politicians" with local people.

Candidates

Michael Colin Davidson - Scottish Labour Party  

David Henry - Independent

Nick Horing - Independent (EP)

Euan Hyslop - Scottish National Party (SNP)  

Otto Inglis - Reform UK

Christine Anne Jardine - Scottish Liberal Democrats

Tam Laird - Scottish Libertarian Party

James Konrad Puchowski - Scottish Greens

Alastair Shields - Scottish Conservative and Unionist

2019 result

Christine Jardine Lib Dem 21,766 39.9 per cent

Sarah Masson SNP 17,997 33.0 per cent

Graham Hutchison Con 9,283 17.0 per cent

Craig Bolton Lab 4,460 8.2 per cent

Elaine Gunn Green 1,027 1.9 per cent

Lib Dem majority 3,769

Turnout 75.2 per cent