The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Gougeon fights off Conservatives to triumph
The SNP retained its stranglehold on the Angus North and Mearns seat as Mairi Gougeon was returned to Holyrood.
With a 3,509 majority over her closest rival, Conservative Braden Davy, she said she was “overwhelmed” by the result.
The SNP’S public health and sport minister in the last Scottish Parliament, Mrs Gougeon said it had been an “honour and a privilege” to represent the constituency for the past five years and a thrill to be returned.
At 33,799, the turnout was 64.16%, well ahead of the 2016 figure of 54.27%.
“It has been fantastic to see the increased turnout and I am just overwhelmed by the faith and trust people have put in me for another term,” she said.
“The big issues are all around recovery. We need to get the NHS back up and running and waiting lists down.
“We need to continue to fight the pandemic and a huge part of that is our economy, and how we can revitalise our high streets.
“And there are a host of local issues that have gone on for a long time that we cannot forget about.
“I am just looking forward to getting back to work,” she said.
Tory candidate Mr Davy said he had “no regrets” over the decision to fight the seat.
He added: “I am obviously disappointed, I would love to have won, but am happy that we ran a very strong local campaign.
“We did our best, but the national message has cut through.
“I’m not on the regional list, but I don’t regret it.
“It’s a team effort and I did my bit to maximise our local list votes.
“Our campaign focused on really important local issues and a large number of people got in touch on things such as basic healthcare.
“There remain huge local
issues that have not been addressed and I really worry that nothing will be done about those.
“This has also been a useful way to raise votes in Forfar where I am a councillor and I will continue to fight on those local issues from that position.”
Labour’s Cindy Douglas said: “I really hope we can continue on the same path and in the same spirit as a community through the pandemic and that we work to rebuild Scotland together, regardless of our political differences.
“I look forward to continuing to work as a
campaigner and grassroots activist.”
Liberal Democrat Michael Turvey said: “I’m a tad disappointed. I felt we ran a really solid campaign on local issues.
“It seems in reality the national issues dominated and that resulted in a bit of a squeeze.”