Yahoo News Outgoing Tory leader Douglas Ross loses bid for Aberdeenshire seat
The outgoing leader of the Scottish Tories has lost his bid for a seat at Westminster.
Douglas Ross fought the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency in the stead of former MP David Duguid, who was barred from standing by party bosses due to ill health.
The Tory leader was beaten by SNP candidate Seamus Logan, who won 13,455 votes to Mr Ross’s 12,513.
Initially, Mr Ross had intended to stand down from Westminster, but reversed course in the midst of the campaign to take on the seat.
His decision raised the ire of opponents and those within the party, leading to him announcing he will stand down as the party’s leader north of the border.
As a result of losing the seat, Mr Ross will remain a backbench MSP at Holyrood.
It also comes after he said his party had endured a “historically bad” result.
Speaking to the BBC ahead of the result, he said: “It is a historically bad night, there is no shying away from that at all and there will be a huge amount of reflection on the campaign and also clearly the last few years.
"It has been particularly difficult and there’s no denying that and whoever forms the next parliamentary party will look at the options going forward and will assess the current state of play in the Conservative party and how it rebuilds after this election result.”
He said he does not regret his last-minute decision to stand but predicted an “extremely close” result.
