Image copyright Getty Images With the************************************ general election in the books, what are the key numbers behind the result in Scotland?
First of all, here are the headline figures:
The SNP wonseats (but will only have
The Conservatives wonsixseats and were runners up in, with their 33. 1% of the vote netting them (% of the seats.)
Labor held on to justoneseat and were runners up in– their 6% of the vote landing them only 1.6% of the seats.
And the Lib Dems wonfourseats and were in second place intwoothers, taking 6.8% of the seats with 9.5% of the vote.
| **********************************************************************************. 1% | – 3.5 | ******************************************************, **************************************************** | – 80, 11 |
************** (Lib Dems) ********************
4 (=) |
| 9.5% |
| 2.8 |
| ************************************************************, |
149, 549 |
|
************** (Labor) **********************
1 (-6) |
|
************************************************************************************ 6% | – 8.5 | ********************************************************, ****************************************************** () ********************** | – (********************************************************************, ************************
The first past the post electoral system used in Westminster elections played a significant role, with Labour’s thinly-spread vote costing them in comparison to the Lib Dems, who profited from their support being more concentrated. Had the election been run under a system of proportional representation, it would have seen the SNP take (seats, the Tories) , Labor 15, and the Lib Dems 6. Overall, the recent period of political turbulence continued. A total of18seats changed hands, which is the third highest total in any general election in Scotland since – behind only the 2015 (80) and ( () results. Marginal no longerGoing into this election Scotland had a remarkably high incidence of marginal seats, with out of the****************************************************************** (MPs defending a majority slimmer than) **********************************************************************************************%. After the SNP’s surge we’re now down toseats with single-digit majorities, with only (five) of them truly on a knife edge with fewer than 1, (votes in it. ) The tightest contests were between the SNP and the Lib Dems – the SNP’s– vote victory over Jo Swinson in East Dunbartonshire being the most marginal of all.
At the other end of the scale, Scotland went into this election with only two MPs having a majority of more than 25%. Now,80Seats have that comfortable a margin – all but one of them SNP. There were |
Kirkcaldy complications
The SNP totals are complicated because the party technically is credited with winning (**********************************************************************************, seats, but will start the new parliament with (********************************************************************************MPs.
This is because they suspended their candidate for**************** Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath– Neale Hanvey – over his use of anti-Semitic language on social media, only for himto take the seat from Labor anyway.
This was a distinctly strange race – Lesley Laird, who was Laborer’s shadow Scottish secretary, gained the seat in 2017 Despite losing votes on the previous time out. She has now relinquished the seat to Mr Hanvey, despite himalso losing votes on the last election – this was the only seat where the nominal SNP vote share went down , it just did not go down by nearly as much as the Labor vote.
Somehow the first, second and third place parties actuallyall lost votes in this constituency compared to (****************************************************, despite turnout being up.
Talking of turnout it was up in almost every seat, with onlyrecording fewer voters than in 01575879. The highest turnout was in East Dunbartonshire, where90 .3%of the local electorate cast their judgement on Jo Swinson.
(Labor pains)
The loss of the shadow Scottish secretary to a (sort of) independent MP might have been the peak of Labor’s embarrassment on a bad night in Scotland, but the picture was bad everywhere .
In
Aberdeen North– now the safest seat in Scotland, with the SNP’s Kirsty Blackman sitting on a (************************************************************************************. 9% majority – they finished third behind a candidate who wasdropped by the Conservatives in mid-November. The party’s share of the vote was down in every seat in the country, with scale of the the percentage-point fall into double digits in(************ (seats.
Labor lost their deposit insix (seats – up from zero in) – representing fully half their total of lost deposits across the UK.
The Lib Dems meanwhile lost their deposit inseats, having only got it back in (in) . Their share of the vote was up in almost every seat in Scotland – not that it will be much consolation having lost their leader.
Of the 15 Candidates who appeared on the ballot paper for the Brexit Party, the one who garnered the most votes was the one the party had disowned early in the campaign over social media comments.
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