Crockart stood against city council housing leader Paul Edie, former Borders MSP Euan Robson and former Edinburgh Central Scottish Parliament candidate Siobhan Mathers.

He retained the seat for the Liberal Democrats in the 2010 general election with an 8.2% majority, despite suffering a large swing to the Labour Party of 11.4%.

[9] The 2010 general election produced a hung parliament, whereby no one party had a majority in the House of Commons and so a coalition agreement was drawn up between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

[12] In his resignation letter, he told party chief whip Alistair Carmichael that the rise in potential student debt will "seriously impact on people's choices".

He went on to say, "this is especially true for those students from poorer backgrounds, many of whom have no role models in their schools or families to demonstrate to them the benefits which can accrue from a university education.