Edinburgh Southern (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Edinburgh South (UK Parliament constituency).

Edinburgh Southern
Burgh constituency for the Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh Southern shown within the Lothian electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Current constituency
Created	2011
Party	Scottish Labour
MSP	Daniel Johnson
Council area	City of Edinburgh
Created from	Edinburgh South

Edinburgh Southern is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the Lothian electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Electoral region

See also: Lothian (Scottish Parliament electoral region)

The other eight constituencies of the Lothian region are Almond Valley, Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Eastern, Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh Western, Linlithgow and Midlothian North and Musselburgh

The region includes all of the City of Edinburgh council area, parts of the East Lothian council area, parts of the Midlothian council area and all of the West Lothian council area.

Constituency boundaries and council area

The City of Edinburgh is represented in the Scottish Parliament by six constituencies: Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Eastern, Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh Southern and Edinburgh Western.

The Edinburgh Southern constituency was created as a result of the First Periodic Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries and largely replaced the Edinburgh South constituency.

For the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, Edinburgh South was redrawn and renamed "Edinburgh Southern". The electoral wards used in this seat are:

• Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart, Meadows/Morningside, Southside/Newington (shared with Edinburgh Central)
• Liberton/Gilmerton, Portobello/Craigmillar (shared with Edinburgh Eastern)
• Sighthill/Gorgie shared with Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Pentlands)

Constituency profile and voting patterns

Edinburgh Southern is an extremely affluent suburban constituency wedged across the inner south of the City of Edinburgh. The constituency is largely composed of leafy Victorian townhousing based around the suburbs of Newington, Morningside, Craiglockhart, Blackford and Merchiston, with some social housing in parts of Prestonfield and Liberton.

Edinburgh Southern has a colourful mix of political traditions, with the equivalent Edinburgh South constituency at Westminster being represented by the Conservatives until being won by Labour's Nigel Griffith in 1987. It has since returned Labour MPs, becoming Labour's only Scottish constituency at Westminster in 2015 following a landslide election for the Scottish National Party, who took 56 of 59 Westminster constituencies in Scotland. At the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh South returned a Labour constituency MSP in 1999, voting Liberal Democrat in both 2003 and 2007 before being narrowly won by the Scottish National Party in 2011. In 2016 the constituency became Labour's only constituency seat gain at the Scottish Parliament, despite the fact that Conservative Party had the largest share of the vote on the regional list vote in the constituency.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Scottish National Party/meta/color" |	2011	Jim Eadie	Scottish National Party
style="background-color: Template:Scottish Labour/meta/color" |	2016	Daniel Johnson	Scottish Labour

Election results

2010s

2016 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Southern

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Daniel Johnson	13,597	35.5	+8.1
	SNP	Jim Eadie	12,474	32.6	+3.2
	Conservative	Miles Briggs	9,972	26.1	+7.5
	Liberal Democrats	Pramond Subbaraman	2,216	5.8	−18.8
Majority			1,123	2.9	N/A
Turnout			38,259
	Labour gain from SNP		Swing

2011 Scottish Parliament election: Edinburgh Southern

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Jim Eadie	9,947	29.4	N/A
	Labour	Paul Godzik	9,254	27.4	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Mike Pringle	8,297	24.6	N/A
	Conservative	Gavin Brown	6,298	18.6	N/A
Majority			693	2.0	N/A
Turnout			33,796	61.5	N/A
	SNP win (new seat)