Friday May 8th 2026
New MSP Kate Campbell Edinburgh Eastern Musselburgh and Tranent seat
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
The SNP has taken the newly created Edinburgh Eastern Musselburgh and Tranent constituency with candidate Kate Campbell winning convincingly over the Labour candidate.
Ms Campbell took 14,083 votes followed by Labour candidate Katherine Sangster;s 9,097 votes in a race which saw turnout at 52.1%. Reform UK candidate Angela Ross took 4,120 votes more than double the 1,819 taken by Scottish Conservative candidate Tim Jones who were behind the Liberal Democrats candidate Alan Grant who took 2,057. The final candidate for Alliance To Liberate Scotland won 305 votes.
New MSP Ms Campbell thanked voters for putting hope before negativity telling the room, “When people put a cross beside my name and the SNP they didn’t vote for a negative, they didn’t vote to stop something, they voted for hope.they voted for hope, and with optimism for Scotland’s future.
“I will carry the expectation of that hope with me every single day. I know folks are fed up with politicians fighting and throwing mud.We have seen the worst of that in recent days, stirring up division. There is no place for that in Scotland.”
The new seat was formed by taking Musselburgh out of its Midlothian North and Musselburgh constituency and adding Tranent in and include candidates from both the Capital and surrounding areas.
SNP candidate Kate Campbell and Scottish Conservatives candidate Tim Jones are both councillors for Portobello and Craigmillar while Labour’s Katherine Sangster stood both for Musselburgh in 2017 and South Scotland in 2021.
Angela Ross, standing for Reform UK is a first time candidate in elections who is a former teacher.
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