Douglas Ross fails in bid to win seat as Reform UK splits vote

Outgoing Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has failed in his attempt to win the seat he was parachuted into to beat the SNP.

Mr Ross was beaten by the nationalists' Seamus Logan, who was elected  with 13,455 votes  - beating the Tory leader by 942.

The Conservatives were hamstrung by support drifting to Reform UK, whose candidate Jo Hart who took 5,562 votes in the constituency

Mr Ross stood in place of David Duguid, who was barred from standing by party chiefs due to ill health - but later insisted it was not his decision to make way and that he was well enough to contest the seat.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: "The exit poll has been borne out with a huge majority for the Labour party but I think the story of the night is the huge demise of the SNP.

"They put independence at the forefront of their campaign and not things like education and public services.

"The campaign we ran in Scotland focused on our key seats where it was a straight choice between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP, our tally could have been significantly more had many of our voters not picked reform and that was certainly the case in my seat.

"That's something we'll have to reflect on here in Scotland and across the UK."

Mr Ross announced he would resign as party leader following the election after u-turning on his decision not to stand as an MP.

Seamus Logan’s triumph for the SNP in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East only dulled the party's on a night when its MPs have fallen like skittles in the face of a resurgent Labour Party.

Westminster leader Stephen Flynn last night said the SNP “needed to pull back the curtain and look at some of the skeletons in our cupboard”.

Douglas Ross at the count (Image: PA)

Mr Flynn slightly increased his majority as he held on to Aberdeen South. But this was one of the few successes on what was a catastrophic night for the SNP. “Let’s face it,” he said, “we’re going to get thumped tonight; I think everyone knows that.”

As Mr Flynn reflected on a “bittersweet night” the adjacent television monitors were recording the detail of his party’s subjugation across Scotland as one by one his Westminster colleagues tumbled.

“To see your friends and colleagues losing their seats is tough to take,” he said. “Now we need to do what’s difficult in politics: to pull back the curtain and look at some of the skeletons in your closet.”

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Asked what the problems were, he said that 5 in the morning wasn’t a good time to pinpoint anything. “I’ll wait for the party to come together and make sure we have that open, internal, frank discussion on what we have done wrong and what we can do to make things better.

“We’re all gutted. When I joined the SNP it was long before the independence referendum when we didn’t win Westminster elections. Many people are now used to the SNP doing extremely well and that’s not happened tonight.”

SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn (second left), and SNP's Kirsty Blackman (second right), after being declared the winners of the Aberdeen South and Aberdeen North constituencies respectively (Image: PA)

He was asked about the prospect of the SNP getting 10 or fewer seats and if this necessitated immediate surgery. “In politics you always operate on a tight time scale. The Scottish parliamentary elections are only two years away and we need to make sure we get our house in order and that we do it quickly and effectively.

“As part of that process everyone must be willing to be honest, open and frank in our internal discussions.

“It’s not good enough or acceptable for us to pretend to the public that that’s the reason why we suffered tonight. So, we’ll all come together in the next few days and have those conversations.”

A few minutes earlier he had seen his Westminster colleague, Kirsty Blackman, stumble home in neighbouring Aberdeen North. Ms Blackman had held one of the largest constituency majorities in the UK coming into the election, having won 54% of the vote in 2019.

But she saw this slashed to the bone by Labour who increased their percentage share by 18.4% - exactly the same quantum by which her majority was reduced.