All the MSPs who lost their seats in the 2026 election

Big names have bowed out of Holyrood after losing their seats in the latest Scottish Parliament election.

Both back and frontbenchers are amongst those who will not be returning to the devolved legislature for its seventh session.

Tory losses were the heaviest at 10, with the SNP and Labour on four each and the Lib Dems losing one – Jamie Greene, who defected from the Tories last year and who was unable to hold on in the West Scotland region.

No independents were successful in retaining their places.

SNP

Angus Robertson may have been the campaign director whose strategy helped the SNP to its fifth successive devolved election victory, but he was unable to hold on to his own seat.

Robertson, who served as constitution, external affairs and culture secretary, faced a tricky battle in Edinburgh Central, where major boundary reforms changed the demographic make-up of the area.

The seat was won by former Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater, a former government colleague of Robertson’s under the SNP-Green alliance which ran from Nicola Sturgeon’s tenure to Humza Yousaf’s.

Robertson was also the fourth-placed SNP candidate for the Edinburgh and Lothians East region, ranked behind former MPs Tommy Sheppard and Deidre Brock, and local council group leader Simita Kumar.

Kumar was successful in the Edinburgh South West constituency, but the SNP gained no list MSPs in the region – leaving Robertson, Brock and Sheppard empty-handed.

“The seat was quite changed and I think that is a significant contributory factor,” Robertson reflected. “But at the end of the day what matters most is who gets the most votes and that wasn’t me.”

Kaukab Stewart, who was the equalities minister, also lost out on re-election after moving her candidacy to Glasgow Southside.

Former teacher Stewart was elected to Glasgow Kelvin in 2021 but moved south of the river to contest Nicola Sturgeon’s old seat.

It went to Scottish Greens candidate Holly Bruce, a local councillor, who won by a margin of more than 3,000 votes as the SNP’s vote tumbled by 32.5 per cent, compared with 2021.

Alasdair Allan, who has held several government posts during his parliamentary career, lost his Na h-Eileanan an Iar seat to Labour’s Donald MacKinnon by just 154 votes.

Allan had held the seat since 2007, and the loss to Lewis crofter MacKinnon was amongst the day’s biggest upsets.

“At the end of the day it was extremely close and that's how it goes in politics, but I am very disappointed,” Allan said.

And while SNP backbencher Emma Harper sought to return in South Scotland, or in the Galloway and West Dumfries constituency, neither worked out – Harper was second in the constituency and the SNP won no seats in the region.

CONSERVATIVES

Former Scottish Conservatives leader Jackson Carlaw had been seen as a potential presiding officer before losing his Eastwood seat.

Carlaw spent a decade serving the area but lost out to Kirsten Oswald of the SNP, who was previously its MP.

And though he had been second for the Conservatives on the West Scotland regional list, this was not high enough to secure his return, with only party leader Russell Findlay, the top ranked Tory, elected this way.

Carlaw ran the Scottish Conservatives on the departure of Ruth Davidson. There were just over 700 votes between him and Oswald, with Labour coming in third.

He was far from only Tory to lose out, with Sharon Dowey, Pam Gosal, Jamie Halco Johnston, Sandesh Gulhane, Roz McCall, Alexander Stewart, Sue Webber, Annie Wells and Brian Whittle also doing so.

Former athlete and South Scotland MSP Whittle ran in East Kilbride, where he ended in fourth place, far behind winner Collette Stevenson of the SNP. He was fifth placed of his party’s candidates for South Scotland, but no Tories were elected there on the regional list.

Wells – who was her party’s spokesperson on drugs, alcohol and women’s health – hoped to win to win in Glasgow for third successive election,  or to take up the Rutherglen and Cambuslang seat.

Neither bid was successful and she said her time in parliament had been “one of the greatest honours” of her life.

Her colleague Gulhane, a GP, secured just 1,400 votes in the Glasgow Anniesland contest and the party was unable to return any list candidates in the area.

Webber spent one term as an MSP for Lothian region and was the group spokesperson on transport. The former councillor came in third in Edinburgh South Western with 14.3 per cent of the vote.

McCall became an MSP in 2022 when she replaced Dean Lockhart on the Mid Scotland and Fife regional list. Lockhart had elected to leave for a career in business instead and McCall went on to become Tory spokesperson for children and young people.

This time round she stood against SNP incumbent Jim Fairlie in Perthshire South and Kinross-shire, where she came in second with a vote share of 25.6 per cent.

Stewart had also been on the Mid Scotland and Fife list, for which he had been a member since 2016. He came fourth in Clackmannanshire and Dunblane this time around, while Halcro Johnston lost out on re-election in the Highlands and Islands, and in the Orkney constituency, where he managed 358 votes to the 7,221 achieved by Lib Dem winner Liam McArthur.

Gosal, who was the first Sikh to become an MSP and took her oath in Punjabi and English, contested the West Scotland region for the second time, and also hoped to win in Strathkelvin and Bearsden.

The latter went to the Lib Dems, while vote share meant she could not be elected on the list alongside Findlay.

LABOUR

Monica Lennon, an outspoken figure of the Labour left, had to undergo surgery on election day.

Her 10-year stretch as a Central Scotland MSP saw her run against Anas Sarwar for the leadership in a head-to-head contest in 2021. She finished on 42.4 per cent of the vote, having been nominated by figures including Neil Findlay and Rhoda Grant.

She came in second behind Clare Haughey in Rutherglen and Cambuslang after a parliamentary career which included the passage of a members’ bill which brought about the provision of free period products.

Well-liked frontbencher Paul O’Kane was not returned in West Scotland and could not oust the SNP’s Tom Arthur in Renfrewshire and Levern Valley. “I’m naturally saddened not to have the opportunity to continue but I congratulate those who will take that duty forward in the new parliament,” said O’Kane, who pointed to spending more time with his toddler son.

Martin Whitfield, who was Labour’s parliamentary business manager, also lost his seat. Whitfield was convener of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee and had been a South Scotland MSP since 2021.

There were just 418 votes between him and winner Paul McLennan in East Lothian Coast and Lammermuirs.

And though Davy Russell was elected to much fanfare in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse in last year’s by-election, he slipped into second place this time, ending behind SNP national secretary Alex Kerr.

Kerr worked for late MSP Christina McKelvie, who had held the seat from 2011 until her death.

INDEPENDENTS

Some of the sixth parliament’s most forthright figures have now left the Holyrood stage.

They include Jeremy Balfour, a Baptist minister and solicitor who opposed the assisted dying bill and who left the Tories to go it alone in August, and former SNP veteran Fergus Ewing.

Ewing finished third in Inverness and Nairn, losing out to former colleague Emma Roddick.

The result makes this the first time there has been no member of the Ewing political dynasty in either Scottish or UK parliaments since 1987.

Ewing had been an MSP since 1999 and left the SNP in June after a number of disputes.

He has suggested his political career may yet continue, saying: “I’m not quite ready for the bath chair yet. I think there’s still some life in the old dog, and we will see what path that takes after I have some time to dwell over it.”

Ash Regan, an ally of Ewing’s, also lost out on re-election. Regan came to parliament as SNP MSP for Edinburgh Eastern in 2016 and became the first minister to quit government when she resigned the community justice portfolio over her opposition to the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

A leadership campaign followed when Sturgeon stood down, and Regan came in third.

She subsequently joined Alex Salmond’s Alba Party and entered another leadership contest after his death, coming second to Kenny MacAskill.

Regan then went independent in October, when she was still working on her Unbuyable bill, which sought to criminalise the purchase of sex.