2026 Scottish Parliament election

The 2026 Scottish Parliament election is due to be held on Thursday 7 May 2026, and will elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. It will be the seventh general election since the devolved parliament was re-established in 1999. Six parties have MSPs in the sixth parliament, although only five won seats at the last Scottish Parliament election in 2021: the Scottish National Party (SNP) led by First Minister John Swinney, the Scottish Conservatives led by Russell Findlay, Scottish Labour led by Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Greens, led by co-leaders Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer, and the Scottish Liberal Democrats, led by Alex Cole-Hamilton.

Of the main five parties, four have changed their leaders since the 2021 election. Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats have each received one MSP following a defection from the Conservatives, giving Reform UK an MSP after failing to elect any at the 2021 election, and increasing the Liberal Democrat's number of seats to 5. Seven members sit as independents after leaving or being suspended or expelled from their respective parties (two from the SNP, Ash Regan left the SNP for Alba before later becoming an independent, three from Labour, and one from the Conservatives). Additionally, Labour received an additional MSP when they won the 2025 Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election following the death of SNP MSP Christina McKelvie. It will be the first Scottish election since the 2024 United Kingdom general election, in which Labour won a landslide victory.