Livingston.

Livingston is a West Lothian seat built around the new town that gives it its name, with a Census population of just over 102,000 and a median age of 42. The constituency takes in the town itself along with surrounding communities such as Broxburn, Uphall, Winchburgh, East Calder and Fauldhouse, a pattern closer to a single dominant town ringed by smaller settlements than a rural-scattered seat. A single local authority, West Lothian Council, runs services across the five wards that fall within these boundaries. As a Scottish council authority it carries the full weight of local services, from schools to social care.

That single-council footprint sits over a finely balanced local contest. Across the sixteen most recent ward results, drawn from elections last held in 2022, the Scottish National Party took seven, Labour six and the Conservatives three -- a division that points to genuine competition rather than settled control. The parliamentary picture has tilted more sharply. Labour won the seat in 2024 on 40.9 per cent, ahead of the SNP on 33.0, reversing the 2019 result when the SNP led on 46.9 per cent. Gregor Poynton has held it for Labour since that 2024 contest, one marker among several of a seat that appears to have moved towards Labour at Westminster level.

Whether that Westminster swing settles or proves a single cycle remains open, given how closely the ward map is split. Recent local reporting has had a flat, administrative character, dominated by council budget-setting, school provision and routine infrastructure rather than by controversy, and the seat has kept a low national profile. On the figures available, the contest reads as competitive rather than safe: a town-centred seat that broke for Labour in 2024 but where the underlying ward arithmetic leaves both main parties within reach.