Politics of Dundee

The council consists of 29 councillors:

• Scottish National Party - 14 councillors
• Labour - 8 councillors
• Conservative - 3 councillors
• Liberal Democrat - 2 councillors
• Independent - 2 councillors

The SNP gained a majority on the council after the 2012 elections. In the previous council, the SNP had the largest number of seats but the council was initially controlled by a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition, with the support of the Conservatives. This changed after a March 2009 By Election result which tipped the balance further in the SNPs direction.[3][4] However the 2017 contest saw the SNP lose their majority, although they remained the largest party with 14 councillors. Labour also lost one seat, while the Conservatives gained two seats and Liberal Democrats also gained an additional councillor.[5]

Until 2019, the council was governed by an SNP-led administration, with the support of the sole independent member. Councillor John Alexander. SNP group leader was also the leader of Dundee City Council.

In a 2019 by-election, the SNP won a seat from Labour, giving it an overall majority.[6] The SNP lost its majority again a few weeks later when Councillor Gregor Murray quit the party after accusing it of being transphobic.[7] Shortly after this announcement, Councillor Murray was suspended from the council for two months by the Standards Commission for Scotland for using a "derogatory word" in an online forum which was judged to be "highly offensive and inappropriate".[8]

The council has a history of Labour Party domination. George Galloway was leader for a time, and was responsible for organising Dundee's twinning with the Palestinian city of Nablus.[9]

The civic head and chair of the council is known as the Lord Provost. In 2017, Scotland's longest serving councillor, Ian Borthwick MBE became the Lord Provost of Dundee. A number of councillors are appointed as ceremonial bailies.

The Leader of the Council, as head of the largest political grouping, is Councillor John Alexander (SNP).

Tayside House
Former home of Dundee City Council, May 2004

Elections to the council are held on a four-year cycle. Councillors are elected from subdivisions of the city area called wards. They were previously elected from 29 single-member wards by the plurality (first past the post) voting system. As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004,[10] eight new wards were introduced for the 2007 election, each electing three or four members by the single transferable vote system of election, to produce a form of proportional representation. The total number of councillors remained the same.

Existing wards, listed below, were first used for elections in 1999. The names and parties of the final councillors in these wards are also listed:[3]

Dundee City Square
Caird Hall is the building at the back of the square
The building on the right is Dundee City Chambers, where the city council meets

The first elections using the new boundaries and using the STV system to vote were held on 3 May 2007. The results were

As a royal burgh, Dundee was represented as a component of the Perth Burghs constituency from 1708 to 1832, when the Dundee burgh constituency was created. In 1868 the burgh constituency became a two-member constituency.

East and West single-member constituencies have existed, with varying boundaries, since 1950.