Gougeon holds her seat and declares recovery and health as priorities

The SNP retained its stranglehold on the Angus North and Mearns seat as Mairi Gougeon retained the constituency.

With a 3,509 majority over her closest rival, Scottish Conservative Braden Davy, she said she was “overwhelmed” by the result.

The SNP’s public health and sport minister in the last 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%.

Mrs Gougeon said: “It has been fantastic to see the increased turnout.”

She added: “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 looking forward to getting back to work.”

Mr Davy said he had “no regrets” over the decision to fight the seat.

He said: “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.”

Mr Davy, who is a Forfar councillor, added: “Our campaign focused on really important local issues and a large number of people got in touch on things such as basic healthcare.”

“The big issues are all around recovery