Landslide for SNP in Scotland

Good morning.

The General Election results for Scotland are in and it is a landslide for the SNP as they gain 56 of 59 seats.

The results are still coming in but it looks very likely that, despite previous polling, the Conservatives will be able to form a majority government.

Projections suggest David Cameron will be able to form a majority Government with 329 seats. Labour are expected to win 233, the Lib Dems eight, the SNP 56, Plaid Cymru three, UKIP two, the Greens one and others 19.

Labour has been left with just one MP in Scotland, Ian Murray in Edinburgh South, while Conservative David Mundell held Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale and Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dem) held Orkney and Shetland.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “The political firmament, the tectonic plates in Scottish politics have shifted. What we are seeing is a historic watershed.

"Whatever the government is that emerges at Westminster, they cannot ignore what has happened in Scotland."

Major Labour figures, including Scottish leader Jim Murphy, election campaign chief and Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander and Margaret Curran, all lost their seats.

After the result was known, Murphy said: “The Scottish Labour Party has been around for more than a century. A hundred years from tonight we will still be around.

"Scotland needs a strong Labour Party and our fightback starts tomorrow morning."

The Liberal Democrats also suffered heavy losses with chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander out of parliament and Charles Kennedy losing his Ross, Skye and Lochaber seat after being MP for 32 years.

Alexander said: “It's been a very tough election and a lot of us have been swept away by this tidal wave of nationalism that has taken over many constituencies in Scotland. We all have to reflect on that.”

Prime Minister David Cameron said his aim remains simple, “to govern on the basis of governing for everyone in our United Kingdom”.

He added: "I want to bring our country together, our United Kingdom together, not least by implementing as fast as we can the devolution that we rightly promised and came together with other parties to agree both for Wales and for Scotland.”

Analysis

Lord Ashcroft has polled voters in hope of finding out what drove decision-making, and the results are very interesting.

Ashcroft asked different voters what their main motivation behind their choice was, with 75 per cent of voters saying that trust in the motives and values of their chosen party drove their decision. In the case of the SNP, the number rises to 91 per cent. Among Labour voters, trust in the party’s motives and values drove 75 per cent of their voters, while among Tories it was lower, at 71 per cent.

Meanwhile in a section that raises questions over Miliband’s leadership, 71 per cent of Conservatives named “I thought the leader of my party would make the best Prime Minister” as their top three motivations, versus 39 per cent for Labour.

Overall 50 per cent of voters said Cameron would make the best Prime Minister, ahead of 33 per cent for Ed Miliband.

Finally, Ashcroft asked respondents when they decided who to vote for, with 26 per cent saying they always knew, 23 per cent saying either on polling day or the last few days, 18 per cent saying they decided in the last month, 13 per cent saying since the beginning of the year.

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