Riding profile

Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy

UK constituency — Scotland · Mixed · scotland

The question

Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy: who wins this toss-up?

Editorial read

Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, a mixed constituency in Scotland, elected a member with Labour in the previous cycle, with a 18-point margin. The Vote-Scope model projects the SNP ahead at 26% vote share, against 23% for Labour, and the race could swing.

Sitting member

Melanie Ward

Sits with Labour

Since
2024-07-04
Parliament
59th

Current forecast

SNP

Toss-up

Probability
100%
Mean margin (pts)
2.8
P(close race)
100%

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • SNP 25.6%
  • Labour 23.3%
  • Reform UK 23.1%
  • Green 9.4%
  • Conservative 7.0%
  • Lib Dems 5.9%
  • Other 5.6%

In context

How this riding stacks up

SNP Labour Reform UK Green
HereCowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy 25.6%23.3%23.1%9.4%
National averageUnited Kingdom 2.5% +23.1 21.7% +1.6 25.3% −2.2 11.8% −2.4

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

Previous election · UK 2024

Won by
Labour
Margin
17.8 pts
Margin shift vs current projection
-14.9 pts

Detailed result · UK 2024

Candidates and votes

Candidate Party Votes % Occupation
Melanie Ward Elected Labour 18,662 45.7
Lesley Backhouse SNP 11,414 28.0
Jonathan Gray Conservative 3,203 7.8
Sonia Davidson Reform UK 3,128 7.7
Fraser Graham Lib Dems 1,593 3.9
Mags Hall Green 1,556 3.8
Neale Hanvey Other 1,132 2.8
Calum Paul Other 126 0.3

Demographics

Who lives here

Employment rate
77.5%

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

Last model run
Cycle
uk_2029