The 2019 Shetland by-election was held on 29 August 2019 to elect a

Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; ; ) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The additional member system produces a form of proportional representation, where ...

(MSP) for the constituency of

Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

. It was held following the resignation of Liberal Democrat MSP

Tavish Scott Tavish Hamilton Scott (born 6 May 1966) is a former Scottish politician. He was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Shetland from 1999 to 2019, and Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 2008 to 2011. He stepped down as Lea ...

upon taking a new role at

Scottish Rugby The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Now marketed as Scottish Rugby, it is the second-oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league system, known as the Scot ...

. The Liberal Democrats held the seat, with Beatrice Wishart being elected for the party.

Candidates

The Liberal Democrats' Beatrice Wishart was deputy convener of the

Shetland Islands Council The Shetland Islands Council is the local authority for the Shetland Islands, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It was established in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and was largely unaffected by the Scottish local gov ...

. The

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

fielded Shetland-born Tom Wills, an engineer with an offshore renewables company. Two Shetland Islands Council members, Ian Scott and Ryan Thomson, ran as independent candidates. A former Shetland Islands Council member, Michael Stout, also ran as an independent candidate.

Campaign

The campaign was hard-fought; the SNP spent £100,000 on the by-election - more money than the party spent during the entire EU referendum - and there was a swing of over 14% to their candidate.

Result

Previous result

References

Shetland 2019 Shetland by-election 2010s elections in Scotland Shetland by-election Politics of Shetland Shetland by-election {{Shetland-stub