Close call at election

IT WAS jittery for a while as the votes were counted, but Brendan O’Hara survived a Tory surge to retain his Argyll and Bute Westminster seat.

AFTER a nerveshredding few hours for candidates at the election count last Thursday, SNP candidate Brendan O’Hara was re-elected to serve as the Argyll and Bute member of parliament.

Just as in last month’s council election, the Scottish Conservative vote saw something of a resurgence in Argyll and Bute. Eagle-eyed party observers monitoring the count noticed in the early hours of Thursday that it was going to be a close-run thing between Brendan O’Hara and Conservative candidate Gary Mulvaney.

By 4am there were whispers of a recount as similarly tight margins were reported from around the country. O’Hara had swept to victory in 2015 on the crest of an national SNP tidal wave, taking the seat from the Lib-Dems’ Alan Reid with a margin close to 8,500 votes.

The margin was tighter after this year’s poll.

Mr O’Hara got 17,304 votes in total – just 1,328 votes ahead of Mr Mulvaney. Speaking after the election result was declared, Mr O’Hara said: ‘In 2015 I promised the people of Argyll and Bute that I would be the hardest working MP I possibly could. And I believe the result tonight is a justification that I have kept that promise.

‘I am absolutely delighted and I thank my family, my team and everyone who has supported me in this campaign.

‘What this allows us to do is carry on the good work we had been doing in Argyll and Bute on a whole range of issues. We made the case for a strong, fair, socially-just society as opposed to what was offered by the Conservatives. I think people recognised that and I’m delighted that they backed the SNP.

‘Though I am delighted, I am extremely sad that so many friends and good, hard-working SNP MPs have lost their seats tonight.

‘I think the Conservatives made this a referendum on a referendum. If anyone was obsessed by independence, it was the Conservative campaign.

‘What I did in Argyll and Bute was to make it absolutely clear that while the SNP will always stand for Scottish independence, this was about Brexit and it was about the economic regeneration of Argyll and Bute.

‘We talked about what was important for this constituency, and for the people of this constituency.’

08_a24election13 Brendan O’Hara makes his victory speech in front of, from the left, returning officer Cleland Sneddon, LibDem candidate Alan Reid, Labour’s Michael Kelly and runner-up Gary Mulvaney, Conservative.

06_a24election05 Tension mounts as the votes are counted in the Lochgilphead campus gym.