A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 7 June 2001 and all 72 seats in Scotland were contested.

[1] The result saw very little change from the last contest in 1997, though after being wiped out in Scotland four years earlier, this time the Conservatives managed to win one seat.

A notable feature of the election was that turnout fell to 58%, which reportedly caused all of Scotland's political parties to be "worried about voter apathy".

On top of this they failed to win several target seats including Edinburgh Pentlands where former MP Malcolm Rifkind failed to regain the seat and Eastwood where Labour incumbent Jim Murphy substantially increased his majority over the Scottish Conservative Chairman Raymond Robertson.

[2][3] The Conservatives did come close to gaining Perth where Liz Smith came within 48 votes of taking the seat from the SNP.