2026 Scottish Parliament election
| Date | 7 May 2026 |
|---|
The 2026 Scottish Parliament election is required to be held no later than Thursday 7 May 2026 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. It will be the seventh general election since the parliament was re-established in 1999.
Contestants
Six parties have MSPs in the sixth parliament:
- Scottish National Party (SNP) led by First Minister John Swinney
- Scottish Conservatives led by Russell Findlay
- Scottish Labour led by Anas Sarwar
- Scottish Greens, led by outgoing co-leader Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater
- Scottish Liberal Democrats, led by Alex Cole-Hamilton
- Alba Party's Ashten Regan
John Mason MSP sits as an Independent after being expelled from the SNP.
Of these parties, four have changed their leaders since the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
Hopeful
Craig Murray hopes to be adopted by the Alba Party as a candidate for the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2026.[1]