The Scottish National Party (SNP) has secured 56 out of 59 Scottish seats in the General Election, elevating former leader Alex Salmond to Westminster and destroying the Labour Party’s share of the vote.
Senior party figures,
including Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy and Shadow Foreign
Secretary Douglas Alexander, were among those ejected from
office, as well as prominent Liberal Democrats, including
Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander and former party leader
Charles Kennedy.
READ MORE: UK General Election 2015 LIVE
UPDATES
The result represents the SNP’s biggest ever win, with the party
taking all seven of Glasgow seats – including Glasgow North East
by a record swing of 39.3 percent.
The nationalists’ previous record was 11 seats in 1974.
The SNP’s referendum-era leader Alex Salmond got the better of
the Lib Dems in Gordon. He returns to Westminster for the first
time since 2010.
His victory address pulled no punches.
“There’s going to be a lion roaring tonight, a Scottish lion,
and it’s going to roar with a voice that no government of
whatever political complexion is going to be able to
ignore,” Salmond told Gordon constituents.
“I think it’s going to be a resounding voice, a clear voice,
a united voice from Scotland, and I think that is a very good
thing.”
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon was lauded by many for building a
dynamic campaign in the wake of a jolting defeat in the
independence referendum last year.
Arriving at the Glasgow count in the early hours of Friday, she
said, “I am feeling absolutely fantastic.
“This is a watershed in the politics of this country and all
the SNP candidates must now work to stand up for Scotland.
Whatever happens, the government must take heed of what has
happened here.”
Among the most notable results was the election of 20-year-old
SNP candidate Mhairi Black at the expense Douglas Alexander, who
might otherwise have returned to the Commons as Labour’s foreign
secretary.
She will be the youngest MP elected to parliament in over 300
years. Her historic victory even won her a nod from Time
magazine.
Thank you to everyone who turned out and voted for me and
helping me win the Paisley and Renfrewshire South #voteSnPpic.twitter.com/nZqyO7C85G
— Mhairi Black (@mhairi1921) May
8, 2015
Before taking her place in Westminster, the politics student must
faces the daunting task of completing her final exams.
It didn’t all go the SNP’s way, however, despite early
suggestions of a landslide victory.
I’d treat the exit poll with HUGE caution. I’m hoping for a
good night but I think 58 seats is unlikely! #GE15
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) May
7, 2015
Much of the commentary by other parties had focused on the
supposed threat of ‘nationalism’ rather than the SNP’s
anti-austerity and anti-nuclear agenda. A careworn Labour leader
Ed Miliband warned the next government would face the possible
breakup of the United Kingdom.
While Sturgeon did not address the question of a second
independence referendum at length, suggesting she would only do
so if the Scottish people called for one, social media is alive
with precisely those calls.
SNP say that a second referendum will only happen when the
people of Scotland ask for it. I’m asking for it now.
— Lizabeth (@Tracey94249526) May
8, 2015
Congratulations to the SNP on a well deserved and majority
vote. Can we just get a second referendum like now plz?
— Michael Ritchie (@Michaelritchie7) May
8, 2015