Scotland wakes up to a Tory government

‘It is an extraordinary statement of intent from the people of Scotland. The Scottish lion has roared this morning across the country’ – Alex Salmond MP

Scots are waking up to another Conservative government this morning. A night of high drama has seen David Cameron’s party creep ever closer to an overall majority – despite an unprecedented surge of support for the SNP which saw the party sweep to a remarkable victory in 56 of 59 seats in Scotland.

All of the Scottish results are now in and the map of Scotland is now a bright SNP yellow – only Alistair Carmichael (LibDem), David Mundell (Conservative) and Labour’s Ian Murray survived the SNP onslaught.

Among the big names to taste defeat in Scotland are Jim Murphy, Margaret Curran, Danny Alexander, Charles Kennedy and Douglas Alexander.

On what was a truly dreadful night for the Labour Party in Scotland Ian Murray’s victory in Edinburgh South was the one bright spark on an evening of unrelenting misery as safe seat after safe seat fell to the SNP – Labour lost 40 seats. The LibDems also paid the price for their coalition with the Tories, losing ten of their 11 MPs in Scotland.

Locally, both sitting MPs lost their seats. The result of the 2010 general election saw Labour return five MPs and the LibDems one, but from early in the campaign it’s been clear that change was coming. It came with a vengeance – LibDem Mike Crockart (Edinburgh West) and Labour’s Mark Lazarowicz (North & Leith), Sheila Gilmore (East) and Ricky Henderson – in Alistair Darling’s former South West seat – all lost, swept away in an SNP landslide.

Nationally, Labour did not make the vital gains in marginal seats required to wrest power from the Tories and, as predicted, the LibDems lost heavily across the country. Polls barely shifted throughout a lacklustre campaign down south and at 8am David Cameron is on course to form the next government – the Tories may even scrape to a narrow majority and so would not need the support of Northern Ireland’s DUP.

The more things change, the more they stay the same …

LOCAL RESULTS:

EDINBURGH NORTH & LEITH

DEIRDRIE BROCK (SNP) 23, 742

Mark Lazarowicz  (Labour) 18, 145

Iain MacGill (Conservative) 9378

Sarah Beattie-Smith (Green) 3140

Martin Veart (Lib Dem) 2634

Alan Melville (UKIP) 847

Bruce Whitehead (Left Unity) 122

EDINBURGH WEST

MICHELLE THOMSON (SNP) 21, 378

Mike Crockart (Lib Dem) 18, 168

Lyndsay Paterson (Conservative) 6732

Cammy Day (Labour) 6425

Pat Black (Green) 1140

George Inglis (UKIP) 1015