Riding profile

Orkney and Shetland

UK constituency — Scotland · Mixed · scotland

The question

Orkney and Shetland: a safe seat for the Lib Dems?

Editorial read

Orkney and Shetland, a mixed constituency in Scotland, elected a member with the Lib Dems in the previous cycle, with a 38-point margin. The Vote-Scope model projects the Lib Dems ahead at 56% vote share, against 12% for the SNP, and the probability of a close race is negligible.

Sitting member

Mr Alistair Carmichael

Sits with Lib Dems

Since
2001-06-07
Parliament
59th

Current forecast

Lib Dems

Safe

Probability
100%
Mean margin (pts)
43.8
P(close race)
0%

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Lib Dems 55.6%
  • SNP 11.8%
  • Green 10.0%
  • Reform UK 9.7%
  • Other 5.1%
  • Labour 4.9%
  • Conservative 2.6%

In context

How this riding stacks up

Lib Dems SNP Green Reform UK
HereOrkney and Shetland 55.6%11.8%10.0%9.7%
National averageUnited Kingdom 11.6% +44.0 2.5% +9.3 11.8% −1.8 25.3% −15.6

Nationwide averages computed across the 650 riding-level projections (unweighted mean).

Previous election · UK 2024

Won by
Lib Dems
Margin
37.7 pts
Margin shift vs current projection
+6.1 pts

Detailed result · UK 2024

Candidates and votes

Candidate Party Votes % Occupation
Alistair Carmichael Elected Lib Dems 11,392 55.1
Robert Leslie SNP 3,585 17.3
Alex Armitage Green 2,046 9.9
Robert Smith Reform UK 1,586 7.7
Conor Savage Labour 1,493 7.2
Shane Painter Conservative 586 2.8

Demographics

Who lives here

Employment rate
89.4%

Data source : ONS mid-2022 population + Jan 2026 labour market

Last model run
Cycle
uk_2029