2021 Airdrie and Shotts by-election

Airdrie and Shotts is a generally working-class, urban seat, and contains the towns of Airdrie, Calderbank, Chapelhall, Glenmavis and Shotts. Previous MPs for the seat include the former Labour cabinet ministers Helen Liddell and John Reid,^[1] both of whom now sit in the House of Lords.

Neil Gray was elected as the Scottish National Party (SNP) MP for Airdrie and Shotts at the 2015 general election, and was re-elected in both 2017 and 2019. In November 2020, Gray announced that he would be resigning as an MP in order to try and win a seat in the Scottish Parliament constituency of the same name at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election; this was necessitated by SNP rules banning its members from sitting as an MSP and an MP at the same time.^[2][3] On 23 March 2021, he made his final speech in the House of Commons,^[4] and was appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead a day later.^[3] The by-election date of 13 May 2021, a week after the Scottish Parliament elections, was chosen to reduce COVID-19 transmission risk.^[5]

Jonathan Stanley had already been announced as the Scottish Unionist Party candidate for a potential Airdrie and Shotts by-election in September 2020.^[6]

On 18 March 2021, Anum Qaisar-Javed was selected as the SNP's candidate for the by-election. She was a Labour Party member until at least 2014, and was the general secretary of Muslim Friends of Labour. She had previously worked as a caseworker to an SNP MSP and as a parliamentary researcher to an SNP MP. At the time of declaring her candidacy she was a modern studies teacher.^[7][8][9]

On 25 March 2021, local councillor Kenneth Stevenson was selected by Scottish Labour to contend the by-election. He beat a former MP for the constituency and the chief executive of Scotland in Union, Pamela Nash.^[10][11]

The Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate was Stephen Arrundale, the party's treasurer.^[12] He had previously stood as a candidate for Midlothian in the 2019 General Election.