An SNP landslide

THE Scottish National Party won the 2021 Scottish Parliament election by a landslide, even if it didn’t win an absolute majority of seats. The question now is: what does Nicola Sturgeon do with this victory? The one thing we do know is that it won’t mean an independence referendum, at least not immediately.

She said repeatedly during the campaign that her “priority” is the pandemic and ensuring a speedy recovery.

She wouldn’t even think of a referendum until “the crisis is over”. But when will that be, and how will we know? The First Minister’s biggest problem, after her historic fourth victory, may be how to ramp down expectations among her own troops that Indyref2 is now done and dusted.

There was palpable relief in Number 10, who think that the SNP’s failure to gain an overall majority means that Boris Johnson can safely ignore the result. Yet the idea that the SNP needed to win 90 per cent of the constituency seats to secure “a majority” is clearly democratic nonsense.

Perhaps the SNP should have made more efforts to explain that, under the Additional Member System, it is almost impossible to win an absolute majority.

It can happen, of course, and did in 2011 under Alex Salmond, but that was a fluke.

This time, the SNP won a higher percentage of votes than 2011 or 2016, and the highest number of constituency votes ever, but still did not win an overall majority.

What cannot be ignored is that this was a resounding victory for the independence parties, and delivers the largest parliamentary majority for a repeat referendum. The overall result may resemble 2016, but its weight is greater, not least because the turnout was so large – the highest in any Scottish Parliament election by far.

Scottish voters were clearly engaged with the issues.

This election was not overshadowed by Brexit, as was the case in 2016, when it took place on the very eve of the referendum on EU membership.

ALBA ISSUE

Mind you, Nicola Sturgeon rather undermined her Indyref case early in

– I have lived within the Highlands and Islands in Moray my entire life.

“I have had the great pleasure and privilege to represent this this area before and I’m delighted to be returned again to represent this diverse and wonderful part of Scotland.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar retained his seat on the Glasgow regional list as his party held four seats in the area.

He had challenged Ms Sturgeon in her Glasgow Southside constituency but failed to make a dent in her majority. Meanwhile, Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie returned to Holyrood with his party having secured a record number of MSPs, including Lorna Slater, its other leader, representing Lothian. The SNP won all nine constituencies in the Glasgow electoral region, with winners including Kaukab Stewart, Scotland’s first female ethnic minorty MSP, who won in Glasgow

Kelvin. Other winners included Ivan McKee, Scotland’s Trade Minister, James Dornan and John Mason.

Eight Glasgow constituencies were declared at the city’s Emirates Arena, with the count for Rutherglen taking place in South Lanarkshire.

The SNP also won a clean sweep of the remaining Edinburgh constituencies yesterday.

Seat increase

After all votes were counted in the capital, the SNP had four seats, including Edinburgh Central, while Scottish Labour and the Liberal Democrats each held their seats, with every incumbent increasing their majority. Speaking after her re-election as MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, the SNP’s Ash Denham said “Westminster must listen” after a pro-independence majority looked set to return to

Holyrood. Ms Denham, who served as the Community Safety Minister in the last Scottish Government, held her seat and increased her majority to more than 10,000.

SCOTTISH Labour’s Daniel Johnson held Edinburgh Southern and Liberal Democrat Alex Cole-Hamilton retained the Edinburgh Western seat with 25,578 votes – more votes than any other Holyrood candidate has ever received – giving him a majority of 9,885. Elsewhere, Scottish Government minister Paul Wheelhouse failed to reclaim a seat in Holyrood.

Mr Wheelhouse – the Energy and Islands Minister in the last Parliament – lost his bid to take Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire from Tory incumbent Rachael Hamilton by 18,564 to 11,701 votes.

Gains in other parts of the South Scotland region harmed his chances on the regional list, with the SNP taking the East Lothian and Ayr seats. Under Holyrood’s voting system, winning constituencies in a certain region reduces the chances of a party also gaining seats on the corresponding regional list.

In the region, only Emma Harper was able to win a seat for the SNP, meaning MSPs Joan McAlpine and Mr Wheelhouse would not return.

In a tweet earlier in the day, Mr Wheelhouse appeared to accept his fate, saying he was hoping for the SNP to secure one list seat, but because he is third in the party’s ranking it may not go to him. “Not expecting it will be good news personally given the fact I am third, but still hopeful we get at least one list MSP elected to cover our area,” he said. Meanwhile, former Green MSP Andy Wightman also failed to attract enough votes to return to Holyrood an an Independent candidate.