Scottish election 2026: The nationalists hoping to make the move from Westminster to Holyrood
Several SNP politicians are hoping to make the jump from Westminster to Holyrood at the Scottish election in May.
The 2024 general election saw the SNP’s numbers in Westminster decimated by Scottish Labour.
The nationalists went from being the third largest party in the House of Commons, winning 48 of the 59 Scottish seats, to holding onto just nine in 2024. Most of these losses came in the central belt, with Labour taking all of the Glasgow seats off of the SNP.
That has left a fair number of SNP politicians without a job.
Meanwhile in Holyrood, after 27 years in charge, numerous SNP politicians are stepping down from frontline politics in the upcoming election, including former first ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes and several government ministers.
The SNP is hoping to kill two birds with one stone here by having the former MPs out of a job in Westminster standing to replace the MSPs departing Holyrood.
This has been done in the past before by nationalist politicians, including First Minister John Swinney.
The Scotsman has taken a look at some of the current and former SNP MPs eyeing up a win at the Holyrood election in May.
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