Dugdale says Labour gains now put ‘every seat in contention’
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said the party had run the SNP so close it could win any seat in the next election.
Ms Dugdale also hailed its six new MPS for providing nearly one quarter of the resurgent party’s gains at Westminster.
She described the increase from one seat in 2015 as a “fantastic result and hugely encouraging”.
Ms Dugdale said Labour had also run the SNP “incredibly close” in several seats, coming within 100 votes of victory.
She said: “Every single seat is in contention next time round. That’s tremendous progress.”
Close calls included being 60 votes behind the SNP in Glasgow South West and 75 votes short in Glasgow East.
Ms Dugdale said her priority was to get a second independence referendum shelved.
She also said Theresa May was making a “grave mistake in trying to plough ahead to form a government”.
Mrs May should instead resign, to give Labour an opportunity to form a minority government. Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister was “still a possibility”.
Ms Dugdale said she was “thrilled” for the six new MPS, who will join sole incumbent Ian Murray, who increased Labour’s vote in Edinburgh South by nearly 16 per cent.
New Glasgow North East MP Paul Sweeney, a community worker, recaptured what was once Scotland’s safest seat from the SNP with a 9.2 per cent increase in its share of the vote, albeit with a majority of just 242.
Mr Sweeney said he had only expected to reduce the SNP’S “unassailable” 9,222 majority, won in the highest swing from Labour of 39 per cent.
He said voters had been attracted by Labour’s manifesto, such as a “real living wage”.
Labour’s other gains were in Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill; Rutherglen and Hamilton West; Midlothian; East Lothian; and Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.