Gordon & Buchan.

Gordon and Buchan is a rural seat in north-east Scotland, drawn on 2023 boundaries with an electorate of about 69,600 and a Census population near 92,500. With a median age of 44, it is a network of inland market towns rather than one dominant centre. Ellon, Inverurie and Turriff anchor the seat, with the Formartine countryside between them. Local services are run throughout by a single body, Aberdeenshire Council, a Scottish unitary authority.

The ward picture is mixed rather than settled. In the most recent contests, fought in 2022, the Conservatives took the largest share of seats, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP each holding a smaller cluster and independents keeping a foothold in towns such as Inverurie. No single party commands the area outright. At Westminster, the seat's first contest on these boundaries, in 2024, returned the Conservative Harriet Cross on roughly 33 per cent, the SNP close behind on about 31 per cent. On the figures available, that two-point gap is among the narrower margins in the region.

That result leaves Gordon and Buchan genuinely contested rather than secure, a Conservative seat held on a slim lead over the nationalists. Recent local coverage has tended toward the flat and administrative, turning on council service provision rather than political conflict, and the seat has kept a low national profile. Cross's parliamentary attention has centred on the economy, energy and fiscal policy, fitting a north-east seat shaped by the energy debate. With the margin so fine and the ward map so divided, it appears poised between its two leading parties.