Tartan Tory resurgence may save May

It’s a hung parliament 

Scotland’s ten Tory MPs have saved the day for Theresa May. The Tory leader went to the country to secure a bigger working majority only for her gamble to misfire spectacularly. With only four results still to be announced the Tories have lost twelve seats and have 315 MPs – well short of the 326 needed for a majority. Mrs May must now broker a deal with Ulster’s ten Democratic Unionist MPs to enable her to run the country: hardly a recipe for ‘strong and stable’ government.

In a night of drama, Labour did much better than predicted by many pundits who had talked of a Tory landslide. With four results to come in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party have 261 seats, an increase of 29.

In Scotland, the SNP lost heavily but remain the biggest party with the most MPs and the highest share of the vote. It was always going to be impossible to repeat the incredible achievement of 2015 when they won 56 of the 59 constituencies, and so it proved. The SNP lost 21 seats, higher than most had predicted, as Scotland’s unionst parties – Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats – made Indyref2 the only issue in the Westminster general election … and it worked. The Tories now have 13 seats, confirming their status as Scotland’s second biggest party, while Labour now has seven MPs and the Lib Dems four.

Two notable Scottish casualties were former leader Alex Salmond and the SNP’s Westminster leader Angus Robertson.

Results in Edinburgh were as expected. The Lib Dems poured resources into their Edinburgh West target seat and it paid off handsomely – Chrsitine Jardine won the seat with a majority of nearly 3000.

Labour’s Ian Murray increased his majority in Edinburgh South, the seat the party simply had to hold on to. The majority was an impressive 15,541.

Deirdrie Brock held on to Edinburgh Northern and Leith for the SNP despite a spirited challenge by Labour’s Gordon Munro – her majority was just over 2500 – and both Tommy Sheppard and Joanna Cherry held their seats for the SNP. Tommy Sheppard;s majority over Labour was almost 3500 in Edinburgh East, while it was tighter in South West, where Joanna Cherry’s defeated the Tories by just over 1000 votes.