SNP SET TO WIN ALL CITY SEATS AGAIN
Sturgeon’s party takes seats from Tories and Labour
THE SNP are on course to win the Scottish Election and embark on a drive towards an other independence referendum. The party has held and also taken seats from Labour and the Conservatives.
SNP candidate Siobhan Brown won Ayr from the Conservatives and the SNP also took East Lothian from Labour and so far has not lost any of its seats to their rivals.
Former SNP deputy leader Angus Robertson won Edinburgh Central for the SNP, a seat that was held by former Scottish Tory leader
Ruth Davidson.
Robertson overturned the Conservative majority of 810, taking 16,276 votes after record numbers of voters turned out in the Scottish capital.
The Tory candidate, Scott Douglas, won 11,544 votes, giving the SNP a majority of 4,732.
Robertson said: “This result is an emphatic and an unparalleled victory for the SNP in Edinburgh Central.
“We have just won the seat of the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives and recorded the best ever SNP result.”
It means the nationalists are still on course to win a majority of the 129 seats at Holyrood. but with many still to declare and the list votes to be tallied, it is still too close to call.
The Conservatives held on Eastwood, which was a target to for the SNP with former party leader Jackson Carlaw retaining his seat.
The SNP are fairly certain to be the largest party, as expected, and Nicola Sturgeon returned as First Minister.
Sturgeon agreed it was looking like the SNP were to be re-elected into Government.
She said: “If that is indeed the outcome of this election, I pledge today to get back to work immediately to continue to steer the country through the crisis of Covid, to continue to lead this country into recovery from Covid.
“And then, when the time is right, to offer this country the choice of a better future.” The full results will not be known until later today as many counts were spread over two days to meet Covid restrictions on the number of counters in halls.
Last night as the Glasgow Times went to print, the SNP had 37 seats, The LibDems 4, the Conservatives three, and Labour one.
Forty five of the 129 seats had been decided with 65 needed for a majority.
Labour leader Anas Sarwar said that his party was on a journey and that they had made progress, even if it has not translated into seats.
“Given where we were 10 weeks ago and where we are now undoubtedly we have made progress. It’s good to see the share of the vote rise,” he said.
“I was honest about this campaign. this is a journey to build a credible alternative to the SNP not just to oppose them and that doesn’t stop with this election campaign.
“I’m disappointed we’ve lost East Lothian, again look at where we were 10 weeks ago and people were questioning the survival of the Labour Party, the Greens making bold predictions Labour was going to finish fourth.”
He added: “Even my biggest critics can see that over the course of the last 10 weeks we’ve got the Labour Party back on the pitch.
“I think people can see that I’m a different kind of leader, trying to build a different kind of party, and together rebuild a different kind of country.”
The Conservatives held on to Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire in the south of Scotland.
The LibDems held North East Fife with leader, Willie Rennie, holding of the SNP challenge and Alex Cole Hamilton regained Edinburgh Western.
Meanwhile, ahead of the list votes being calculated today Alex Salmond said he though it unlikely his Alba Party would win any seats.
He said: “I don’t think so on the results we’ve seen.”
The former First Minister added: “We take out of this election that the arguments we’ve been putting forward will be proved correct – independence will be front and centre.”
The Glasgow Times will bring you the full results from Glasgow and across Scotland in Mondays edition. Live coverage of tomorrow’s count at the Emirates and other results as they come in will be available at www.glasgowtimes.co.uk