GeneralElection2019 Constituency profiles

PERTH AND NORTH PERTHSHIRE

Perth and North Perthshire is the second of two Courier Country constituencies to feature the UK’s closest marginal, after SNP candidate Pete Wishart won narrowly against the Conservatives in 2017 by only 21 votes.

Despite the race being so close, the former Runrig star received the most votes cast for any SNP politician during that election.

The constituency was formed in 2005 and has only ever had one MP, Mr Wishart.

Before that he sat in the North Tayside seat, winning it in 2001 after deputy first minister John Swinney stood down from Westminster.

Since its creation in 2005, only the Conservatives and the SNP have polled more than 10,000 votes each. Labour’s best result in the seat came in 2005.

Lib Dem councillor Peter Barrett will contest the seat once more, having run in 2017, 2015 and 2010 – where he recorded his best result.

The Conservatives too are running with a familiar face, Councillor Angus Forbes, who is part of the ruling Tory administration.

The constituency covers vast swathes of Perth and Kinross and indeed Scotland, sharing borders with Dundee West, Angus, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Ochil and South Perthshire, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Argyll and Bute, Stirling and Ross Skye and Lochaber.

A predominant part of Scotland’s soft-fruit industry is located in the constituency, with candidates being asked what they would do to protect it.

They were also asked how they would represent constituents that might not share their political outlook.