GeneralElection2017 Constituency profiles

Dundee West

In 2010, Jim McGovern was returned as the MP for Dundee West with a majority of 7,278.

His successful re-election marked 60 years of Labour dominance in the seat, which had remained red since its creation in 1950.

Fast forward five years and things looked very different.

Mr McGovern was not standing again following health issues but no candidate wearing a rosette with a rose at its centre could have stopped the SNP juggernaut in what was by then Scotland’s Yes city.

As such, 6ft 6in Chris Law took his ponytail, beard and a 17,092 majority of his own, to Westminster.

It has been an eventful couple of years for the man who made his name driving a converted fire engine around Scotland in the run-up to the 2014 independence referendum.

It started with him at the centre of a short-lived fight over Labour stalwart Dennis Skinner’s seat, before Law joined the Scottish Affairs Committee, won a battle to have a direct Dundee Amsterdam flight route set up only to see it axed after six months, and was cleared of any wrongdoing following a four-month police investigation into his financial dealings.

Make no mistake about it, the seat is just about as safe as they come for the SNP this year, despite its long-standing Labour traditions.

The big man will get another chance to try to make a big impression after June 8.