UofG Centre for Public Policy

28 May 2026: The University of Glasgow’s Centre for Public Policy hosted its final election webinar on 11 May, unpacking the results from the Scottish election with an expert panel.

Following the Scottish election on 7 May, experts from the University of Glasgow and Centre for Public Policy hosted a live webinar on 11 May to discuss the results and what it means for the next parliamentary term in Scotland.

Expert panel

Chaired by the Centre for Public Policy’s Associate Director Professor Kezia Dugdale, the panel consisted of:

• Professor Nicola McEwen, Director, UofG Centre for Public Policy
• Mark McGeoghegan, Mark McGeoghegan, Research Associate, UofG Centre for Public Policy and Associate Advisory Director, Ipsos Scotland
• Professor Christopher Carman, Stevenson Professor of Citizenship, University of Glasgow

Professor Nicola McEwen opened the webinar with an overview of what happened in the Scottish election 2026, noting this would be SNP’s fifth successive term in government, which has never been seen before both within Scotland and the UK.

Nicola gave an overview of how parties performed in the election and how this interacts with parties’ stance on independence, and that this was both the Conservative and Labour parties’ worst performance in Scotland to date.

Next, Professor Christopher Carman gave an overview of the Scottish Election Study’s work around the election, including voters’ opinions of the election being about Scotland vs about the UK, and the feeling and engagement towards the election from voters, with focus on the “meh” election narrative.

He commented on this election seeing Holyrood’s largest ever intake of 64 MSPs, and the pressures that may bring, when thinking about a partisan electorate that pressures along party lines.

Mark McGeoghegan spoke of the 2026 election being ‘the most disproportional Scottish parliament result ever’ and the shift to six-party politics in the regional list vote and a combination of five-party and six-party vote in the constituencies in Scotland.

He said this could mean a future of disproportional, but also unpredictable results, raising a question around whether the Scottish voting system will remain fit for purpose.

Opening the Q&A section of the webinar, Professor Kezia Dugdale addressed the panel one by one to cover a series of questions, which covered themes of:

• Prospects of another independence referendum
• Falling combined vote shares for the Conservative and Labour parties
• Whether the Green party will work alongside the SNP
• Fiscal pressures and difficult policy decisions ahead
• The effects of the result on nationalism
• Understanding reasoning for vote switching
• Understanding satisfaction and the future of leadership
• What compromise might look like

 

Watch the webinar in full on the Centre for Public Policy YouTube channel

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First published: 28 May 2026