THE voter turnout across both the UK and Scotland has hit historic lows in the 2024 General Election - after a period of relative growth in voter turnout.
While the Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire constituency is yet to be declared, the current figures show that turnout in Scotland is set to be around 59%.
This is down a massive 9.1 percentage points from 2019, when turnout in Scotland was 68.1%. The UK turnout in 2019 was 67.3%.
According to BBC predictions, turnout at this General Election is set to be a similar 60% across the UK. This will be the second lowest turnout ever in a UK election since 1885, with only 2001 being lower at 59%, speaking to a large-scale feeling of political disenchantment across the country.
Looking at the 2017 election, the UK-wide turnout was 68.8% - its highest level since Tony Blair was elected as Labour prime minister in 1997.
Scotland, however, was the only region where turnout fell in 2017, dropping by 4.6 percentage points from 2015 to 66.4%.
The low turnout exacerbates claims that Keir Starmer's sweeping wins across the country do not represent a significant change in the country's political leanings.
While Labour have won 412 seats at Westminster, the party scooped up 34% of the popular vote, just a 1.6 percentage point increase from the party's share in 2019 and a six percentage point fall from the 40% won under Jeremy Corbyn in 2017.
The lower overall turnout means that despite increasing Labour's vote share, the party secured just 9,686,329 overall votes in 2024, compared with a total of 10,295,912 under Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 - a result deemed a catastrophic failure by many.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel