Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Angus back to yellow as SNP retake from Tories
THE SNP enjoyed a huge n ig ht i n A ng us a fte r reclaiming the seat from the Tories.
The nationalists took back the constituency with a winning margin of 3,795 votes.
SNP challenger Dave Doogan reclaimed the seat for his party with 21,216 votes to the 17,421 received by Conservative incumbent Kirstene Hair.
The party had previously held the seat for two decades before Ms Hair’s victory in 2017.
Mr Doogan addressed a jubilant crowd of SNP supporters and members in the hall after the result was announced, making it the first Tayside seat to be returned.
A triumphant Mr Doogan said voters in the county had rejected a “hollow rhetoric of division and privilege”.
Liberal Democrat candidate Ben Lawrie came in third with 2,482 votes, beating his Labour rival Monique Miller into fourth place with 2,051 votes.
The first ballot boxes arrived in Arbroath’s Saltire Centre at 10.14pm as voters at 94 polling stations cast their votes in the first December general election since 1923.
Turnout was 67.6%, up 4.6% on the 2017 general election.
The result came shortly before 2am after the candidates received a private briefing from returning officer Margo Williamson.
Confidence among the SNP group had been high from the start of the evening, after a strong turnout in the parts of the county where they enjoy the most support.
The threatened poor weather failed to materialise across much of Angus as the sky stayed dull and grey, but mostly dry until the evening.
The SNP lost Angus to the Conservatives in 2017 after the nationalist party had held it since its creation for the 1997 general election.
Angus was a firm 56% no vote in the 2014 independence referendum but almost 45% of residents backed leaving the EU, a significantly higher percentage than the Scottish average.
Ms Hair, born and brought up in Brechin, surprised many in 2017 when she overturned the Nationalist majority of 11,230, defeating SNP veteran and holder of the seat for 16 years, Mike Weir, in the process.
In its earlier incarnation as Angus South, the seat had been Tory territory, until the SNP’s Andrew Welsh won in 1974 as part of a group of 11 nationalist MPs.
Ms Hair fought a strong local campaign, highlighting achievements such as her part in retaining and strengthening
Royal Marine base RM Condor in Arbroath.
Like her colleagues nationally, she also talked up the threat of an increased SNP presence in
Westminster and what that would mean for the prospect of a second independence referendum.
Mr Doogan’s message focused on Brexit, the effect on Scotland of a strengthened Boris Johnson premiership and what that could mean for further private sector involvement in the NHS.