General election 2024: All you need to know about the new Bathgate and Linlithgow constituency

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Boundary changes which came into effect for this general election have created a new Bathgate and Linlithgow constituency which will elect its first MP on July 4.

As much as 90 per cent of the new seat was previously part of the Linlithgow and Falkirk East constituency, including Armadale, Blackridge, Whitburn and Blackburn. But it also adds Broxburn, Uphall and Winchburgh from the Livingston seat. It loses Grangemouth, but keeps Bo'ness and Blackness, which are in the Falkirk council area.

The SNP's Martyn Day faces a challenge from Labour's Kirsteen Sullivan | collage

And former Linlithgow and Falkirk East MP Martyn Day is the SNP candidate for the new seat.  He says many voters are “scunnered”.  “It's going to be a tighter result than I would like,” he admits. “We're losing a few to Labour but not that many - it's more apathy and the scunner factor.

“There are folk who just want rid of the Tories, folk who don’t trust Starmer and there's folk that think the SNP has let them down by not delivering independence, so it's just a complete scunner factor.”

But his answer is to talk to as many voters as he can. “We've never had an as in-your-face, on-the-doorstep campaign as this one in the 30 years I've campaigned. Some elections you just have to go out there and take it on the chin - and folk are easy to win back.   They feel they haven't been listened to and going out and chatting is making a huge difference.

“I’m certainly getting my steps in. I’ve lost about a stone since the start of the campaign - seven hours a day on your feet does that.”

But he says the SNP support base is enthusiastic and while some projections show Labour winning, others put him ahead.

Labour’s candidate, Kirsteen Sullivan, is a councillor for Blackburn and depute leader of West Lothian Council. She says there is discontent with the other two main parties. “A lot of people are saying they're fed up of the SNP, including lifelong SNP voters who feel betrayed - there's a lack of trust there now.  Likewise, there are Conservative voters who feel quite frustrated about the events of the past few years.”

Cllr Sullivan says the top two issues across the constituency are the NHS and the cost of living crisis, but more locally the lack of a train station for fast-expanding Winchburgh is a source of frustration.

"There are more and more houses being built there, people are being encouraged to get out of their cars and use public transport, there have been accommodations made in the timetable on the Glasgow-Edinburgh line and yet still no train station. The Scottish Government has failed to come up with the funding.

“West Lothian has one of the fastest growing populations in Scotland and we’ve not seen the investment from government in the infrastructure that's needed.”

On the NHS, she says: “People are telling us they had to go private for hip and knee replacements. That's causing a lot of angst and a lot of upset because a lot of people can’t afford to go privately, obviously, and people feel they shouldn't have to, but they're being forced into it because they'd have to wait years and years on waiting lists.

“That's why Labour's policy for huge investment at a national level into the NHS is so important, unlocking up to 160,000 new medical appointments every year in Scotland."

She says the cost of living crisis, coming hot on the heels of Covid, left people feel they had not had a chance to draw breath.  “We have policies to try to bring down the cost of living with the setting up of GB Energy, which will save people hundreds of pounds a year off their energy bills, but also the new deal for working people which will end up putting more money in a lot of people's pockets.”

There have been reports of rows inside the local Labour party over how much of their funds should be spent on Cllr Sullivan’s campaign, with some discontented activists said to be going to help in other seats instead. But Cllr Sullivan says she is not commenting on the reports. “I’m just focusing on my campaign.”

Tory candidate Lynn Munro, a former councillor for Bo’ness, says despite the national picture, she finds people “in the main pretty positive” when she goes canvassing. But she says: “Local government isn’t listening to communities, it’s paying lip service only, and I think that’s a really big issue.

“People want the basics done - they want the roads fixed, they want education improved, they want grass verges cut. They want the basic, ordinary thing that impact on their everyday lives. Maybe for once local authorities would listen if MPs raised these kind of issues.”

Lib Dem Sally Pattle stood in the general election five years ago and in 2022 was elected as the only Liberal Democrat on West Lothian Council. She says her campaign is going well. “Our manifesto focused on access to healthcare and local issues like sewage outflows - and these are the concerns we're picking up on the doorstep. I feel we had it pegged, before the election was called, what people were talking about.

“It used to be you could get an appointment with the GP at the first time of asking. Here in Linlithgow we are really starting to feel the strain. And there are also issues at the Kikrliston and Winchburgh GP service - but obviously this is nothing against the GPs, who are doing absolutely the best they can.

“The other thing coming up locally here is public transport - it is nigh on impossible in West Lothian to get from north to south, although east-west is easy because all roads lead to Edinburgh” She wants the Bus Partnership Fund - which has been “paused” by the Scottish Government - reactivated so bus networks can be restored.

“Buses truly are the most accessible form of transport. To me it is a national issue because we need that funding released.”

Simon Jay, who has worked as a writer and performer in Edinburgh since 2011, is standing for the Greens. Business analyst John Hannah, from Armadale, is representing the  Independence for Scotland Party. Jamie McNamee, a former soldier who now works as a saturation diver in the oil and gas sector, is the Reform UK candidate. And there is an independent, Stuart McArthur, who names housing and transport as priorities.

Candidates

Martyn Day - Scottish National Party (SNP)

John Hannah - Independence for Scotland Party

Simon Caleb Jay - Scottish Greens

Stuart James McArthur - Independent

Jamie McNamee - Reform UK

Lynn Edith Munro - Scottish Conservative and Unionist  

Sally Pattle - Scottish Liberal Democrats  

Kirsteen Ann Sullivan - Labour and Co-operative Party 

2019 result (Linlithgow & East Falkirk)

Martyn Day SNP 25,551 44.2 per cent

Charles Kennedy Con 14,285 24.7 per cent

Wendy Milne Lab 10,517 18.2 per cent

Sally Pattle Lib Dem 4,393 7.6 per cent

Marc Bozza Brexit Party 1,257 2.2 per cent

Gillian Mackay Green 1,184 2.0 per cent

Mark Tunnicliff Veterans and People's Party 588 1.0 per cent

SNP majority 11,266

Turnout 66.4 per cent