Edinburgh South is a constituency of the House of Commons of the UK Parliament created in 1885. The constituency has been held by Scottish Labour since 1987, being represented by Ian Murray since 2010. Murray was the only Labour MP in Scotland to retain his seat at the 2015 and 2019 general elections and this is one of only three seats never held by the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Scottish Labour, officially the Scottish Labour Party, is the part of the UK Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and unionist, it holds 22 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 2 of 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons. It is represented by 262 of the 1,227 local councillors across Scotland. The Scottish Labour party has no separate Chief Whip at Westminster.