Douglas Ross humiliated as Scottish Conservatives leader loses seat to SNP

Douglas Ross has been humiliated after the Scottish Conservatives leader lost his seat to the SNP.

The top Tory had hoped to be elected as MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East but a surge in votes for Reform helped to push him into second place.

Ross had previously announced he would stand down as leader of the Scottish Tories after the general election and said he would quit Holyrood if he was returned to Westminster.

But that plan was shredded in the early hours of Friday morning, with Ross now facing a spell as a backbench MSP at Holyrood.

The SNP won the seat thanks to a majority of 942 votes for Seamus Logan.

Logan took 13,455 votes, with Ross getting 12,513. Reform's Jo Hart took 5,562.

Ross previously sparked fury among his colleagues over claims he elbowed out a sick colleague to grab the nomination for the Aberdeenshire North seat.

David Duguid was blocked by the Scottish Tories on health grounds from standing for re-election.

Boundary changes mean that Aberdeenshire North and Moray East is being contested for the first time, but the majority of the constituency was in Banff and Buchan, previously represented by Duguid.

Speaking to the BBC, the party leader suggested the Reform UK vote had handed the SNP the seat.

The party’s candidate Jo Hart came third with 5,562 votes, while Ross trailed his SNP rival by less than 1,000.

“The Reform vote was clearly the big factor here with it being the highest Reform vote anywhere in Scotland,” he said.

“It’s been a difficult, difficult night for the entire Conservative Party.”

He added: “I accept my own share of responsibility, both locally and nationally, I’m never going to walk away from that.

“I will carry that burden but we also have to look at how we come back from this as a Conservative Party across the United Kingdom and how we immediately start to challenge this new Government that’s going to be formed by Keir Starmer because, with their majority, they need to be checked by the opposition parties in the House of Commons.”

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