General Election explained
by The SNP has won the general election in Scotland. The Tories have lost their majority at Westminster.
Here’s what you need to know.
The SNP won the election in Scotland.
The SNP won 35 seats, but lost a number of seats and excellent parliamentarians. Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson will be a massive loss.
Yet the SNP still won more seats than all the other parties combined, and won the largest number of votes in Scotland.
This is the second best Westminster result ever for the SNP. Before 2015, the largest number of SNP MPs was 11. Going into the election two years ago, we had just 6.
The Tories lost the election in Scotland and lost their majority in the UK.
The SNP has more than double the number of Scottish seats than the Tories. Across Scotland, the Tories have been heavily defeated, winning just one in seven seats.
And in the UK, they asked for a massive majority that would crush the opposition. Instead they lost their majority and are likely to lose their leader.
Instead of strength and stability, the Tories now seem headed for an extended period of infighting, with Brexit negotiations set to begin in just 10 days.
Scottish Labour Party encouraged Tory wins.
Kezia Dugdale used television interviews to urge the public to vote tactically to stop the SNP. This undermined Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of winning the UK election. Without the 12 Tory gains from the SNP, Labour and the SNP combined would have had more seats than the Tories. There were even reports suggesting that Scottish Labour and the Tories were working together.
SNP MPs elected today will make sure Scotland has a strong voice at Westminster.
Both the Scottish and UK results show a massive rejection of the Tories extreme Brexit. This result – combined with the hung Parliament – makes Scotland pivotal at Westminster.
We will use this influence to defend our place in the Single Market and the 80,000 jobs that depend on it. We’ll make sure Scotland’s voice is heard in the Brexit negotiations, and we will continue to stand up for Scotland’s industries, including fisheries and agriculture.
We will work to keep the Tories out of power.
We will form the third largest party in the Commons and have an opportunity to have real influence in the future of the United Kingdom. We will seek to deliver key commitments we share with other progressive parties such as: an end to austerity, increased investment in public services, including the NHS, fair pensions for older people by maintaining the triple lock; and making sure work pays with a rise in the Minimum Wage.
And SNP MPs will fight to avoid the calamity of an extreme hard Brexit.