1987 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 11 June 1987 and all 72 seats in Scotland were contested.^[1][2] While the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher comfortably won a majority across the United Kingdom, the result saw the Conservatives suffer significant losses in Scotland as their vote share declined significantly in what The Glasgow Herald called "the humiliation of the Tories north of the border." Labour, who as well as gaining seats from the Conservatives also took two from the SNP and one from the SDP, now had more MPs from Scotland than at any other point in the party's history, including holding every seat in Glasgow, while the Conservatives were reduced to their lowest number since the Second World War.^[3] Several prominent Scottish Conservative MPs, including Peter Fraser, Sir Alex Fletcher and Michael Ancram lost their seats, while George Younger, then Secretary of State for Defence, only very narrowly held his Ayr constituency after a recount.^[3][4] The Conservatives also had close results in Edinburgh West, where James Douglas-Hamilton's majority was reduced to 498 votes, and at Stirling where junior minister Michael Forsyth's majority fell from over 5,000 to 948 votes.^[5] The SNP's leader Gordon Wilson and the former leader of the SDP Roy Jenkins, also lost their seats to Labour challengers.^[4] Labour also took the Western Isles constituency from the SNP following the retirement of former SNP leader Donald Stewart, with the seat seeing an SNP to Labour swing of 19.6%. The SNP partially compensated for their losses by gaining three seats from the Conservatives, while the Conservatives also lost two seats to the Liberals.^[6][7]

Quick facts All 72 Scottish seats to the House of Commons, Turnout ...

1987 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

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All 72 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
Turnout	75.1%, 2.4%
First party Second party   Leader Neil Kinnock Margaret Thatcher Party Labour Conservative Leader since 2 October 1983 11 February 1975 Last election 41 seats, 35.1% 21 seats, 28.4% Seats won 50 10 Seat change 9 11 Popular vote 1,258,132 713,081 Percentage 42.4% 24.0% Swing 7.3% 4.4%   Third party Fourth party   Leader David Steel (Lib.) David Owen (SDP) Gordon Wilson Party Alliance SNP Leader since 7 July 1976 (Steel) 21 June 1983 (Owen) 15 September 1979 Last election 8 seats, 24.5% 2 seats, 11.8% Seats won 9 3 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 570,053 416,473 Percentage 19.2% 14.0% Swing 5.3% 2.2%
Results of the 1987 election in Scotland

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In reaction to the poor Conservative performance compared with England, Scottish Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, said "Of course I am disappointed. We have done well in the south, but not so well in Scotland." He noted that the recession had "bitten deeper" in Scotland than in England and that recovery had been slower.^[3] The defeated Sir Alex Fletcher stated that "There is no Tory press in Scotland. The papers up here are rather hostile to the Tory Party".^[4]

An editorial in The Glasgow Herald the day after the election argued that the results meant that "the case in favour of devolution is automatically strengthened", while also observing that the "patchy showing" by the SNP showed "that there is no general inclination for separatism".^[8]