‘Very poor result’ for SNP as Labour make gains
Just nowBy Angus Cochrane, BBC Scotland News PA Media
First Minister John Swinney has admitted the SNP is suffering a “very poor result” in the general election as Labour made dramatic gains in Scotland.
As his party suffered a series of big losses, Mr Swinney said there would need to be “soul searching”.
He said it was a “very, very difficult and damaging night” for his party.
Mr Swinney continued: “We’ve got to listen carefully, we’ve got to listen attentively, to what the public are saying to us in this election result and on a variety of other topics and questions around the country.”
It was defending 48 seats but is projected to see that reduced to just eight seats – its worst result since 2010.
Labour made gains across the central belt, with most of their results following vote share swings of about 20% from the SNP.
In Glasgow, the SNP lost several frontbenchers to Labour.
And in the capital, the SNP’s Joanna Cherry lost her Edinburgh South West seat to Labour. She secured 12,446 to Scott Arthur of Labour’s 18,663 – a swing of 23.5% to Labour.
Stephen Flynn, the party’s Westminster leader, clung on to his Aberdeen South seat but told BBC Scotland it was a “very difficult and bleak night” for the SNP and that the party had to learn from it.
“There’s the Starmer tsunami, the fact that people want change in Downing Street and we’ve undoubtedly been squeezed in that context,” he added.
SNP deputy Westminster leader Kirsten Oswald was ousted in East Renfrewshire by Blair McDougall – the former head strategist of the Better Together campaign for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
Former first minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon told ITV: “This is not a good night for the SNP on these numbers and there will be a lot of questions that need to be asked as we come out of it.”
Alex Salmond, who preceded Ms Sturgeon as SNP leader and first minister, said the “slaughter of the SNP” was not due to its support for Scottish independence.
He added: “How could it be? The SNP did not even campaign on it.”
ReutersSNP leader John Swinney said his party would have to learn from the result
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said he was confident his party would win a majority in Scotland.
“This is a changed Scottish Labour Party and tomorrow that work for change begins,” he told BBC Scotland News.
His party is aiming for a major revival, having won just one seat at the last general election in 2019.
The SNP returned 48 MPs in 2019, but that total was reduced to 43 by the time of the election – due mainly to defections.
The Scottish Conservatives won six seats in 2019, but increased this to seven when Lisa Cameron defected from the SNP.
‘Massacre’ for Conservatives
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross described it as a “historically bad night” for the Tories.
“There is no shying away from that at all and there will be a huge amount of reflection on the campaign and also clearly the last few years,” he told BBC Scotland News.
“It has been particularly difficult and there is no denying that.”
Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Conservative leader, told Sky News the exit poll predicted a “massacre” for the Tories.
However, she said the projections were better than earlier internal Tory figures.
The Lib Dems returned four MPs north of the border at the last election.
Ex-Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson said the party was set to become a “substantial force again”.
ReutersBallot papers are being counted across Scotland
The number of constituencies in Scotland has been reduced from 59 to 57 in this election due to boundary changes – affecting all but 10 seats north of the border.
The alterations are based on recommendations by an independent commission in each part of the UK and are designed to reflect population shifts.
This means it will not be possible to do a direct comparison between this year’s results and the previous election in 2019.
Instead, to measure gains and losses, “notional” results will be used.
These have been calculated using localised voting data to estimate what the result would have been in 2019 had the current consistency boundaries been in place.
Using notional results, the picture is largely similar to the original 2019 outcome – with the SNP on 48 seats, the Tories on six and Labour on one. The Lib Dems, however, have lost two seats according to the notional results – down from four to two.
This election falls during school summer holidays for much of Scotland and some voters reported not receiving their postal ballots in time.
Councils were distributing replacement voting packs until 17:00 but some voters still had difficulty casting their ballot.
It is also the first time photo ID has been required for a national election in Scotland.