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SNP deputy Angus Robertson ousted by Tories on bad night for Sturgeon’s party SNP suffers shock losses as Tories oust Salmond and Robertson
(about 2 hours later)
The Scottish National party’s deputy leader, Angus Robertson, has suffered a shock defeat in his seat of Moray after the Conservatives won a stunning victory backed by pro-Brexit voters. The Scottish National party has endured a series of shock defeats including the loss of its deputy leader, Angus Robertson, and the former first minister Alex Salmond, after its political authority was heavily eroded by pro-UK parties.
Robertson’s defeat will be a bitter blow to Nicola Sturgeon and follows one of the first surprise losses of the general election with the SNP narrowly losing a seat to Labour that few had predicted. Robertson’s defeat to the Conservatives in Moray, a seat with a very strong pro-Brexit and anti-independence vote, was the worst in a series of early losses for Nicola Sturgeon’s party.
In a sign that Sturgeon’s party could suffer heavier than expected losses across Scotland, Scottish Labour overcame a 17% SNP majority to win Rutherglen and Hamilton West, by just 265 votes. The SNP went on to suffer a larger shock when the Tories defeated Salmond, a major figure in British politics.
As the first Scottish results came in, the Conservatives won Angus to the west of Dundee – another unexpected SNP loss that indicated a strong swing towards pro-UK parties. Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, admitted that these results were a huge blow to her and the party and indicated that she would have to reconsider her push for a second independence referendum.
Defended by Mike Weir, Angus is one of six core SNP constituencies the party had held in successive elections before its landslide victories in 2015 brought it 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats. “I’m not going to take any rash decisions. Clearly I will reflect on the result of the election. I will take time to do that,” she said.
In a sign of how well the Tories were doing in the SNP’s rural seats, there was a recount order in the other key Tory target of Perth and North Perthshire, held by the SNP’s Scottish affairs committee chairman, Pete Wishart. When asked, before the result came through, about speculation that Salmond might have lost, she said this would be “bitterly disappointing”, adding that Salmond “is one of my closest friends and my mentor”.
The BBC/ITV/Sky exit poll forecast the SNP could lose 22 seats in this election, far more than commercial polls had been predicting. Those suggested the SNP would lose about 12 constituencies, although senior figures were braced for the loss of 15 seats. Sturgeon insisted, however, that the SNP had still won the election in Scotland. Even as she faced the loss of 20 or more seats, she said it was the party’s second best Westminster election performance.
There were several reassuring victories but with a reduced share of the vote for Sturgeon, with Mhairi Black holding Paisley and Renfrewshire South. The SNP also held Kilmarnock and Loudoun; Falkirk; East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow; and Dunbartonshire West. The SNP Treasury spokesman, Stewart Hosie, retained Dundee East. As a series of results slashed the party’s huge majorities, SNP seats fell to the Tories in rural and suburban constituencies including Ochil and South Perthshire, Angus and East Renfrewshire.
The Conservatives were widely expected to win their top target seat of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk in the Borders from the SNP, with some party figures in Scotland’s most marginal constituency suggesting it could be by a 5,000-vote majority. The SNP’s Pete Wishart held on to Perth and North Perthshire by the tightest of possible margins – 21 votes – as Scottish voters switched their backing for parties who opposed Sturgeon’s calls for a second independence vote.
In those seats declared, there was significant evidence the Tory vote was increasing and in some places beating Labour. That suggested Sturgeon’s risky gamble of accusing the Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, of hiding her secret support for a second independence referendum last year from voters had paid off by turning unionist voters away from Labour. Labour had a far better night than most polls predicted, winning shock victories in Gordon Brown’s former seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, Chryston, Coatbridge and Bellshill, and Rutherglen and Hamilton West.
Black told BBC Scotland: “I’m glad to be re-elected to go back down and continue to batter into whoever is in government that austerity is not working, it’s not benefiting people’s lives whatsoever. The people it is benefiting, you could argue, are the ones who need it least.” The Liberal Democrats had several big victories, regaining seats lost to the SNP in 2015, including East Dunbartonshire, won by the former equalities minister Jo Swinson, and Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. The Lib Dems were also heavy favourites to gain Edinburgh East.
As Scottish voters went to polling stations amid torrential rain or overcast skies on Thursday, two fresh eve-of-election polls supported forecasts that the SNP would lose as many as 12 Westminster seats. Speaking before his result was declared, Salmond said: “It looks now certain that the SNP will win a majority of Scottish seats, more seats than all the other parties put together. By any democratic terms, that means that the SNP has won this election in Scotland.”
A Survation telephone poll for the Record, which backed Labour in the election, put the SNP at its lowest level since September 214, down to 39%, while Scottish Labour scored a remarkable 29%, its highest in more than two years, and the Tories were on 26%. The BBC/ITV/Sky exit poll forecast that the SNP could lose 22 seats in this election, far more than commercial polls had been predicting. Those suggested the SNP would lose about 12 constituencies, although senior figures in the party were braced for the loss of 15 seats on a very difficult night.
A Panelbase poll published by the Scottish edition of the Times suggested Survation’s unusual results were an outlier: it put Labour at 22%, lower than other recent surveys, while the SNP were at 41% and the Conservatives at 30%. There were several reassuring victories, but with a reduced share of the vote, with Mhairi Black holding Paisley and Renfrewshire South. The SNP also held Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Falkirk, East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, and Dunbartonshire West, with the SNP Treasury spokesman, Stewart Hosie, retaining Dundee West.
Black told BBC Scotland: “I’m glad to be re-elected to go back down and continue to batter into whoever is in government that austerity is not working, it’s not benefiting people’s lives whatsoever. The people it is benefiting, you could argue, are the one’s who need it least.”
The Conservatives won their top target seat of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk in the Borders from the SNP with a majority of 11,060.
In those seats declared, there was significant evidence that the Tory vote was increasing and in some places beating Labour. That suggested Sturgeon’s risky gamble of accusing the Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, of hiding her secret support for a second independence referendum last year from voters had paid off, by forcing unionist voters away from Labour.