Pro-independence heads to majority in Scotland polls

London: Scotland’s governing Scottish National Party was on course Saturday to win its fourth straight parliamentary election and very close to securing a majority that would enable it to make a push for another referendum on independence from the UK With 60 constituencies counted, the SNP had won 51 of the 129 seats and was clearly on course to extend its dominance of Scottish politics.

London, May 8: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was enjoying an election bounce on Saturday as many of the local and byelection results went in favour of his ruling Conservative Party.

In what is seen as a result in support of the government’s coronavirus vaccination programme as well as the handling of Brexit, the Opposition Labour Party faced a crushing by-election defeat in a traditional stronghold of Hartlepool in north-east England, which the party had held for many decades.

The Johnson-led Conservatives secured key victories over Labour as they took control of a number of councils in the West Midlands. The Tories have hailed it as a continuation of the crushing Labour defeats in the 2019 general election.

“What happened in 2019 was that people mandated us to get Brexit done and to begin the process of uniting and levelling up. I think what’s happened now is they can see we did get Brexit done and to a certain extent they can see we delivered on that,” said Johnson, on a visit to Hartlepool to congratulate the new Conservative parliamentarian Jill Mortimer.

“I think what people want us to do now is get on with delivering on everything else. And so, number one is continuing the vaccine rollout – making sure we go from jabs, jabs, jabs to jobs, jobs, jobs. Make sure we have a strong economic recovery. But then get on with a massive project for this country – and it is a very ambitious thing,” he said.

“Every government has tried it to some extent but I don’t think any government has tried it as wholeheartedly as this government is trying. And that is uniting and levelling up,” he added. The Hartlepool vote and this week’s local elections, for which the results are continuing to be counted, were Labour leader Keir Starmer’s first major electoral test after just over a year as Labour leader. The general picture has been dismal, focussing scrutiny on his performance over the last 12 months. —