Jackson Carlow fights off SNP to increase majority in Eastwood seat

Carlaw, the former Scottish Conservatives leader, has held on to his Eastwood seat, extending his majority, despite it being a major target for the SNP.

It had been a tight three horse race in 2016 as Carlaw won by 1611 votes from the SNP, with Labour fewer than 250 behind in third.

That result made Eastwood a target seat for opposition parties, but Carlaw’s winning margin increased as he picked up 17,911 votes to SNP candidate Colm Merrick’s 15,695.

After his victory, he said: “Five years ago it was the greatest honour of my life to be elected to represent my home constituency of

Eastwood and the honour is greater still today.”

Carlaw, who led the Scottish Conservatives from February to July 2020, added: “This has been an extraordinary year, both personally, for politics and for my party now at Holyrood there is a very big job for us to do and I look forward very much to being a part of that.”

He went on to say Holyrood’s focus should be entirely on the pandemic, and not on independence.

The SNP’S Merrick, an East Renfrewshire councillor for Giffnock and Thornliebank, congratulated Carlaw – and said he could now catch up on Line of Duty.

He added: “The results coming in across the country show that the winds of changes continue to blow across Scotland and ultijackson mately it will be for the people living and working in Scotland to determine our own future.

Constituents knew their vote would count and turned out in large numbers. A 76.4% turnout – 42,844 votes – was up from 68.5% in 2016.

Labour’s young candidate, Katie Pragnell, picked up 6759 votes while independent David Macdonald, with 1352 votes, finished ahead of the Liberal Democrats’ candidate Tahir Jameel, who got 911 votes.

The Eastwood constituency – an affluent seat with many middle-class commuters – takes in Newton Mearns, Eaglesham, Giffnock, Thornliebank, Netherlee and Clarkston.

It was held by Labour’s Ken Macintosh from 1999 to 2016, when Carlaw won.