Hannah Goodlad wins Shetland Islands by more than 1,500 votes

hannah goodlad won the Shetland Islands seat for the SNP in the Scottish election, taking the constituency from the Liberal Democrats. She will become the MSP for the Shetland Islands after a result that ended Liberal Democrat control of a seat long viewed as a stronghold.

The SNP won 5,453 votes, ahead of the Liberal Democrats on 3,936. That gave Goodlad a majority of more than 1,500 votes in a contest where turnout reached 63.9% among 17,979 registered voters.

Shetland Islands vote count

The Liberal Democrats lost more than 14% of vote share from 2021. In the same contest, the Scottish Greens won 949 votes, or 8.3%, Reform UK won 725 votes, or 6.3%, Labour won 169 votes, or 1.5%, and the Scottish Conservatives won 137 votes, or 1.2%.

Alliance to Liberate Scotland won 65 votes, or 0.6%, and independent Peter Tait won 50 votes, or 0.4%. Turnout was 1.9% lower than in 2021, a fall that came alongside the shift in control of the seat.

Alistair Carmichael response

Alistair Carmichael congratulated the SNP and said it had been a difficult campaign locally. The result also left the Liberal Democrats with a setback in one of the contests that had carried the clearest local stakes for their support.

Liam McArthur won Orkney for the Liberal Democrats, and Heather Anderson secured Dundee City West for the SNP. For Shetland voters, the immediate change is straightforward: Goodlad now takes the seat, and the constituency moves into SNP hands after the count.