This is a relatively prosperous, largely rural, lowland constituency on the fringe of the Highlands with successful livestock and fruit-growing sectors reliant on its good soil quality. The beautiful scenery also aids tourism, and the constituency as a whole enjoys relatively low unemployment.
This combination of small prosperous towns and rich agricultural land would seem like natural Conservative territory and in the past it was. The Tories held Perth’s predecessor seats for most of the post-war period with the exception of the period between October 1974 and 1979, when Douglas Crawford held Perth & East Perthshire for the SNP.
At the by-election following the death of the flamboyant Conservative MP for Perth & Kinross, Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, in 1995, the SNP’s Roseanna Cunningham won with an 11.5% swing from the Conservatives. She held the seat at the 1997 general election, making Perth the first SNP by-election win that has not been reversed at the following general election.