2005 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

2005 United Kingdom general election

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All 59 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
Turnout	60.6%, 2.4%
First party Second party   Leader Tony Blair Charles Kennedy Party Labour Liberal Democrats Leader since 21 July 1994 9 August 1999 Last election 56 seats 10 seats Seats before 46 9 Seats won 41‡ 11 Seat change 5* 2* Popular vote 922,402 528,076 Percentage 39.5% 22.6% Swing 4.5% 6.3% UK seats 355 62   Third party Fourth party   Leader Alex Salmond Michael Howard Party SNP Conservative Leader since 3 September 2004 6 November 2003 Last election 5 seats 1 seat Seats before 4 0 Seats won 6 1 Seat change 2* 1* Popular vote 412,267 369,388 Percentage 17.7% 15.8% Swing 2.4% 0.2% UK seats 6 198
Coloured according to the winning party's vote share in each constituency *Indicates boundary change – so this is a nominal figure ‡ Figure does include the Speaker, Michael Martin

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on 5 May 2005 and all 59 seats in Scotland were contested. This was the first election to occur under the new boundaries which reduced the number of Scottish seats from 72 to 59. Previously, Scotland had a greater number of MPs per person than the rest of the UK to compensate for its distinct political nature and distance from Westminster. With the introduction of the Scottish Parliament, Scottish constituencies were brought into line with those found in the rest of the UK, so that they had similar electorates.