SCOTTISH ELECTION RESULTS IN THE FISHING CONSTITUENCIES

Scottish election results in the fishing constituencies.  By Tony Mackay, Economist. tony@tonymackay.co.uk

There were elections last Thursday for the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd in Wales and many local councils in England.

In Scotland the Scottish National Party (SNP) will again form the Government after winning 58 of the 129 seats. They are a few seats short of the 65 required for a majority, but they will have the support again of the Green Party . The Reform Party stood for the first time in the Scottish elections and finished joint second with 17  seats. In contrast both the Labour and Conservative parties did very badly.

The Scottish fishing industry is concentrated in three constituencies:

• Aberdeenshire East, which includes the ports of Peterhead and Fraserburgh
• Shetland, which includes Lerwick
• Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, which includes Scrabster, Kinlochbervie, Lochinver and Ullapool.

There were surprising results in two of these three constituencies

Peterhead is the busiest fishing port in both Scotland and the UK as a whole. It usually accounts for about 40% of the total fish landings in Scotland and 30% of the UK ones.

Lerwick is the second busiest fishing port in Scotland, Fraserburgh 3^rd, Scrabster 4^th, followed by the others on the West Coast.

No change in the Aberdeenshire West constituency: Gillian Martin retained her seat for the SNP, with the Conservatives 2^nd and Reform 3^rd.

In contrast there was a big surprise in Shetland, where the Liberal Democrats lost the seat to Hannah Mary Goodlad of the SNP.

And also in the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross constituency, where the SNP lost the seat to the Liberal Democrats.

Government policies for the fishing industry are divided between the UK and Scotland. The SNP recognises the importance of the fishing industry so there will certainly be continued support over the next few years.

Mairi Gougeon was the Minister responsible for fishing in the last Scottish Government but she did not stand in this election. We wait to see who will be the new Minister.

Image: ©Fish Focus