The SNP has won Shetland for the first time in the history of the Scottish Parliament after Hannah Mary Goodlad secured a breakthrough victory in one of the most significant results of the 2026 election.

Hannah Mary Goodlad received 5,453 votes to defeat Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate Emma Macdonald, who secured 3,936 votes.

The result marks the first time the SNP has ever won the Shetland constituency since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999.

It also represents one of the biggest political shifts seen in the Northern Isles in decades, with Shetland long regarded as one of the Liberal Democrats’ strongest areas of support.

Turnout in Shetland reached just over 64 per cent according to official verification figures released during the count.

The result is likely to send shockwaves through Scottish politics given the symbolic importance of Shetland within the Liberal Democrats’ traditional Highlands and Islands stronghold.

Hannah Mary Goodlad’s campaign had steadily gathered momentum throughout the election period, with the SNP pushing hard on local visibility, organisation and turnout across the islands.

The victory also underlines wider political movement across the Highlands and Islands during this election, with several constituencies experiencing major swings and fragmented traditional voting patterns.

Official regional list figures later confirmed strong Liberal Democrat support remained in Shetland on the regional ballot, where the party secured 3,508 votes compared to the SNP’s 3,099.

Even so, the constituency result itself represents a historic breakthrough for the SNP in an area where the party had previously struggled to gain electoral control.

The full constituency declaration was confirmed by Shetland Islands Council on behalf of the Returning Officer following the overnight count in Lerwick. 

The scale of the result is already being viewed as one of the defining Highlands and Islands stories of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.