HAMMERED BY AN INDY BACKLASH
Disaster for SNP as 21 seats are lost Nationalist share of vote down to 37% Yet Sturgeon still hopes to leave UK
NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday admitted an anti-independence backlash was a ‘factor’ in the massive slump in support for the SNP – but still refused to take a referendum off the table.
The SNP leader faced calls from across the political spectrum – including within her own party – to drop her demand for another vote on her separation crusade.
Opponents said that the SNP’s nosedive in vote share, which saw the party lose 21 of the 56 seats they won in 2015, was the ‘final nail in the coffin’ for Miss Sturgeon’s plan for another vote on Scotland’s future.
At a midday Bute House press conference, the First Minister conceded that her plans to hold a rerun of the 2014 vote were ‘undoubtedly’ a factor in the SNP’s poorer-than-expected performance.
When the final Scottish results came in as dawn broke yesterday, the SNP was left with 35 seats, with the Tories soaring to 13, Labour on seven and the Liberal Democrats on four.
It was a major disappointment for the SNP, which lost a series of its best-known MPs, including former First Minister Alex Salmond, deputy leader Angus Robertson, culture spokesman John Nicolson, chief whip Mike Weir and women’s officer Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh.
Voters dramatically shifted away from the party after its manifesto claimed that winning the election in Scotland would ‘reinforce’ its mandate for a second independence referendum.
Looking visibly drained following the night of dramatic results, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Undoubtedly the issue of an independence referendum was a factor in this election result, but I think there were other factors in this election result as well.’
When all the ballot papers were counted, the SNP won 36.9 per cent of the vote in Scotland, while 28.6 per cent backed the Tories, 27.1 per cent voted Labour and 6.8 per cent supported the Lib Dems.
The SNP’s vote share was dramatically down on 2015, when it secured just over 50 per cent of all votes. In sharp contrast, the Tory vote soared from 15 per cent.
If the result were repeated in the constituency and regional list votes in the next Holyrood elections, it is unlikely that the SNP could command a majority, even with the support of the Greens.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the question of a second independence referendum had been ‘a significant motivator of votes against the SNP’. Former SNP Communities Minister Marco Biagi added that trying to build support for independence is ‘alienating people’ and a second referendum ‘needs put on ice’.
But despite opponents and even some figures within the SNP saying plans for another referendum should be abandoned, Miss Sturgeon refused to take it off the table.
Instead, she pledged she would ‘reflect carefully’ on the result as she stressed the need for politicians to ‘try to bring people together to bridge divides and to find a way forward that is rooted in consensus’.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said: ‘Nobody will condemn the First Minister if she now decides to re-set her course. This is her opportunity to do so – and I urge her to take it immediately. She must take it off the table. And if the First Minister really does want to act on behalf of all people in Scotland – she needs to make this clear.’
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: ‘This was a cata- strophic result for the SNP and is the final nail in the coffin for Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a divisive second independence referendum.
‘She must now immediately abandon that plan and get back to the day job of running our schools and hospitals.’
Miss Dugdale claimed also that Miss Sturgeon’s decision to reveal details of a private conversation she had with her following the Brexit vote had ‘backfired’.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie called for a Holyrood vote to stop the SNP’s push for separation from the UK.
He said: ‘The central issue of the election in Scotland was another independence referendum.
‘The Scottish people have rejected that proposal. Nicola Sturgeon must respond immediately to this major event.’
At yesterday’s press conference, Miss Sturgeon paid tribute to her ‘friend and mentor’ Mr Salmond following his humiliating defeat to Tory Colin Clark in Gordon, describing him as ‘the giant of modern Scottish politics’ and ‘someone who has devoted his life to serving this country’. She added that Mr Robertson was a ‘parliamentarian of immense stature’.
She also attempted to downplay the significance of the SNP’s losses, the biggest reversal any SNP leader has endured in nearly 40 years, by describing the 2015 result as a ‘once in a century’ achievement.
‘She must take it off the table’