Resurgence leaves Nats’ MPs fearing for seats

THE Scottish Conservatives have made huge gains from the SNP in their own backyards – leaving some senior Nationalist MPs worried for their seats only weeks before the General Election.

The Tories had already identified SNP Deputy Leader Angus Robertson’s Moray seat as a top target, and have now been buoyed by a surge in support in the Moray Council ward, in which they secured more first preference votes than the SNP.

They also enjoyed gains in Perth and Kinross, part of controversial Nationalist MP Pete Wishart’s constituency, and became the largest party in East Renfrewshire, occupied by the SNP’s Kirsten Oswald.

Despite a poor performance overall, the Liberal Democrats had a strong showing in East Dunbartonshire, where former equalities minister Jo Swinson will try to topple SNP culture spokesman John Nicolson, and in Edinburgh West, where the Westminster seat is occupied by MP Michelle Thomson, who was suspended by the SNP amid a police probe into property deals.

In Moray, the Tories won 3 .1 per cent of first preference votes, ahead of the SNP’s 31. per cent. They gained five seats and got eight councillors elected, while the SNP lost a seat and had nine councillors elected. Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said her party can use the results as a ‘platform’ for the General Election.

Douglas Ross, Tory candidate for the Moray seat on June 8, said: ‘We are still underdogs in Moray as the SNP is defending a majority of over 9,000, but this local election has shown strong Conservative support across Moray and we are going up against the SNP in one of their heartlands.

‘People are fed up of the SNP’s centralising agenda and don’t want a second independence referendum.’

In Perth and Kinross – the ward partly within Mr Wishart’s Perth and North Perthshire seat – the Tories became the largest party after securing 17 seats, up seven from 2012, while the SNP had 15 councillors elected, down two from 2012. The Tories also established themselves in East Renfrewshire, winning seven seats compared with five for the SNP and four for Labour.

The Lib Dems said they won more than 50 per cent of first preference votes in Almond, a ward within Mrs Thomson’s Edinburgh West seat, and won three other wards in the constituency. The party gained three councillors in East Dunbartonshire, where it now has six seats, while the SNP was unchanged on seven. Labour was the largest party in East Lothian, a key target in next month’s election.

Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘The local election results are an excellent springboard for the General Election on June 8.’