Guernsey Press

Scottish Labour down one seat but deputy leader increases majority

Jackie Baillie retained her Dumbarton seat but Martin Whitfield lost out in East Lothian.

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Scottish Labour have lost one of their three Scottish Parliament seats but deputy leader Jackie Baillie has retained Dumbarton with an increased majority.

Ms Baillie won 17,825 votes, compared to 16,342 for the SNP’s Tony Giugliano.

In 2016, the Dumbarton seat went to Ms Baillie by just 109 votes, but on Friday she increased her majority to 1,483.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar lost out to Nicola Sturgeon in Glasgow Southside but said he was pleased to increase his party’s share of the vote in the constituency.

But Martin Whitfield lost East Lothian – which had been won in 2016 by the retiring MSP Iain Gray – to the SNP’s Paul McLennan.

Mr Sarwar lost to the First Minister in his home constituency but is also a candidate on the regional list, which will be declared on Saturday.

As results were announced at the Emirates Arena on Friday, Mr Sarwar won 10,279 votes to Ms Sturgeon’s 19,735.

In 2016, the First Minister won a total of 15,287 votes – with the Labour candidate winning 5,694 votes.

Speaking to the PA news agency after the result, he said: “I’m pleased that we doubled the actual number of votes that we got and we increased the share of our vote by 9%.

He said Labour was still on a journey to build a “credible alternative” to the SNP.

Saying he welcomed the increased turnout, he added: “I’m not one of those politicians who likes to calculate whether a higher turnout or a lower turnout is good or bad for their individual political party.

“I think it’s good for democracy that as many people participate as possible.”

Discussing East Lothian, he said: “It’s disappointing, there’s no point in denying it.

“Of course I’m particularly disappointed for our amazing candidate Martin Whitfield.

“But again, look at where we were 10 weeks ago – we were at 14% in the opinion polls and coming fourth.

“Even my biggest critics can see that over the course of the last 10 weeks we’ve got the Labour Party back on the pitch.

“I think people can see that I’m a different kind of leader, trying to build a different kind of party, and together rebuild a different kind of country.”

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