GeneralElection2017 Constituency profiles

PERTH AND NORTH PERTHSHIRE

A battleground seat if ever there was one.

Perthshire was fertile ground for the Conservatives and Unionists throughout most of the 20th Century, turning towards the SNP through Roseanna Cunningham in a 1995 by-election.

The area had a brief flirtation with the SNP in 1974 when Douglas Crawford won, but it was the approach of the millennium that saw the party claim control locally.

Despite various boundary changes, the area that is now Perth and North Perthshire has been coveted by the Tories each time there has been an election in the past 30 years.

The party has been thwarted at every turn but is once again exuding confidence as we move towards another vote. Its candidate, the MEP Ian Duncan, has a good local and national back story, but Pete Wishart, the SNP incumbent, has been in place since 2001 and currently commands a majority of 9,641, having attracted more than 50% of the votes cast.

So why are the Conservatives so confident this time round?

Well, first of all, they slashed the majority of John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister and a popular local MSP in the equivalent seat, in the 2016 Holyrood election.

Then they claimed the most first-preference votes across the constituency in May’s council contest.

None of this is enough to say they will finally claim victory in the area, although it is enough to make this seat one to watch on election night.