Politics of Edinburgh

The City of Edinburgh Council Ceitie o Edinburgh Cooncil Comhairle Cathair Dhùn Eideann
Coat of arms
Admin HQ	Edinburgh
Government
• Body	The City of Edinburgh Council
• Control	Lab (Minority) (council NOC)
• MPs	Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat Joanna Cherry, SNP Ian Murray, Labour Deidre Brock, SNP Tommy Sheppard, SNP
• MSPs	Angus Robertson, SNP Ash Regan, Alba Ben Macpherson, SNP Daniel Johnson, Labour Alex Cole-Hamilton, Liberal Democrat Gordon MacDonald, SNP
Area
• Total	102 sq mi (263 km2)
• Rank	Ranked 23rd
Population  (2022)
• Total	514,990
• Rank	Ranked 2nd
• Density	5,100/sq mi (2,000/km2)
ONS code	S12000036
ISO 3166 code	GB-EDH
Website	www.edinburgh.gov.uk

The politics of Edinburgh are expressed in the deliberations and decisions of the City of Edinburgh Council, in elections to the council, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament.

Also, as Scotland's capital city, Edinburgh is host to the Scottish Parliament and the main offices of the Scottish Government.

The City of Edinburgh became a unitary council area in 1996, under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Edinburgh district of the Lothian region.

As one of the unitary local government areas of Scotland, the City of Edinburgh has a defined structure of governance, generally under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, with The City of Edinburgh Council governing on matters of local administration such as housing, planning, local transport, parks and local economic development and regeneration. For such purposes the City of Edinburgh is divided into 17 wards.

The next tier of government is that of the Scottish Parliament, which legislates on matters of Scottish "national interest", such as healthcare, education, the environment and agriculture, devolved to it by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. For elections to the Scottish Parliament (at the Scottish Parliament Building, in the Holyrood area of Edinburgh), the city area is divided among six Scottish Parliament constituencies, each returning one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), and is within the Lothians electoral region.

The Parliament of the United Kingdom (at the Palace of Westminster) legislates on matters such as taxation, foreign policy, defence, employment and trade. For elections to the House of Commons of this parliament, the city area is divided among five United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies, with each constituency returning one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

On 18 September 2014, Edinburgh voted "No" in the Independence referendum by 61.1% to 38.9% with an 84.4% turnout rate.^[1]