Ferrier bounces back to take seat
Margaret Ferrier won back Rutherglen and Hamilton West as the SNP completed a clean sweep in South Lanarkshire.
One of the most tightly contested seats in Scotland in 2017, a five per cent swing from Labour to the SNP saw Ms Ferrier – MP for the area from 2015 to 2017 – re-elected with a majority of 5230.
Defeated incumbent Ged Killen felt the party’s leadership at Westminster had an impact on the result despite his vote holding strong.
Conservative candidate Lynne Nailon came a distant third as their vote fell by 4.6 per cent, while Lib Dem candidate Mark Mcgeever increased their vote by almost one per cent.
Loud cheers filled John Wright Sports Centre in East Kilbride as the first constituency was declared in Scotland at 1.25am on Friday, December 13.
After her win, Ms Ferrier thanked Mr Killen for representing the area at
Westminster since the last election.
She said: “We disagree on what Scotland’s future should be but, on behalf of the constituency, thank you for being our voice for the last two years.
“It is to the future we must now turn, as the newly re-elected voice I am honoured and humbled to have been trusted once again by the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West.
“To those of you who didn’t vote for me tonight, without hesitation, I will try and speak for you too.
“Your concerns and fears are shared by those of us who seek an independent future.”
Mr Killen said: “My vote actually held up quite well from 2017, but the SNP benefitted from the increase in turnout.
“There were a lot of issues at play in this election that are not typical, Brexit being one of them and independence being another.
“On those constitutional issues, Labour is squeezed and I don’t think that we’ve had necessarily clear leadership which has meant we have fallen through the middle.
“Our party leadership at a UK level has had an impact on this result. We are seeing that up and down the UK.
“People just didn’t believe what we were putting forward and didn’t trust Jeremy Corbyn to deliver it.”
The Lid Dems managed to keep their deposits in all three South Lanarkshire seats and Mr Mcgeever added: “It’s not the result we expected but I want to thank everyone who did turn out and vote for us. We do appreciate all the support we have received.
“Looking forward, we are very worried about the future of our country and very worried about what Boris Johnson with a right wing Tory government and a huge majority is going to do.”
Full result
Margaret Ferrier (SNP) 23,775 Ged Killen (Lab) 18,545
Lynne Nailon (Con) 8054 Mark Mcgeever (LD) 2791 Janice Mackay (UKIP) 629 Turnout: 66.6%