Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Lib Dems gain North East Fife constituency
IN the narrow North East Fi fe con st it ue nc y, t he Liberal Democrats swept to victory as the party’s first female MP in the area det h roned t h e S N P ’s Europe spokesman.
Wendy Chamberlain becomes the constituency’s first female MP in what was previously the most marginal seat in the country.
She overturned the slimmest of majorities in the seat, held by Stephen Gethins since he defeated Lib Dem Elizabeth Riches by two votes in 2017.
Mrs Chamberlain won 19,763 votes compared to Gethins’ 18,447, giving her a majority of 1,316.
The result flew in the face of an exit poll that predicted a win for the SNP. Mrs Chamberlain, a former police officer, said she was very grateful to all the voters who had put their faith in the Liberal Democrats.
She said: “It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions tonight.”
Meanwhile, a candidate dropped by the SNP a fortnight before the election won another Fife seat from Labour’s deputy Scottish leader.
Neale Hanvey was suspended by his party over allegations of antiSemitism in comments he made on social media two years ago.
However, he still won the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency with a majority of 1,243 over Labour’s Lesley Laird.
Mr Hanvey took 16,568 votes, narrowly beating Mrs Laird’s 15,325. In the Glenrothes constituency, the SNP cruised to victory as they beat their nearest rivals Labour by a crushing margin.
Peter Grant will return to Westminster for a third time after securing more than 50% of the overall votes cast, leaving his main rival, Pat Egan, in his wake.
It was a hugely disappointing night for Labour who polled 9,477 of the votes in a distant second place. Conservative Amy Thomson received 6,920 votes, while Liberal
Democrat Jane Ann Liston polled 2,639.
Independent candidate Victor Farrell, originally standing for the Brexit Party but ditched by them after he posted homophobic messages on social media, polled 1,276 votes.
In all, 41,616 vote were cast, with 70 spoilt ballot papers from a turnout of 63.29%.
Douglas Chapman will return to Westminster after retaining his Dunfermline and West Fife seat.
The Nationalist incumbent ran out clear winner, polling over 23,000 votes, with his nearest rival, Labour’s Cara Hilton, coming in second place over 10,500 votes behind.