Law of increasing returns for SNP’s Dundee West MP

2019-12-13 - BY LINDSEY HAMILTON

THE SNP have held on to their Dundee West seat, as predicted.

Chris Law had a repeat of his 2017 election victory last night when he swept back into power.

He held on to his seat with 22,355 votes, increasing his majority to 12,259 over his nearest rival, Labour’s Jim Malone.

Early polls predicted that Mr Law had a 99% chance of holding the seat.

Once the votes were in the predictions were proven accurate.

Following the declaration of his victory, Mr Law said: “We are delighted with the increased majority we have won with.

“We are also delighted with the increase in SNP gained in Scotland as a whole.

“This makes it very clear that Westminster is broken.

“Scotland has made it very clear what it wants next.”

Despite the expected boost in turnout, just 3% more of the population of the area were persuaded to turn out to vote when compared with 2017.

There had been some doubt over the constituency, with Mr Malone conducting a hard fight for the seat.

During the week leading up to the election, many Labour supporters in the constituency were hopeful Mr Malone could pull off an upset.

It wasn’t to be for the Labour man though, with the people voting to retain their sitting SNP member.

A total of 41,579 people voted in Dundee West – 64.5% of the electorate in the constituency.

Last time around in 2017 when Chris Law held his seat, a total of 38,677 people cast their vote, which amounted to 61.7% of the electorate.