LONDON — Britain’s Conservatives aren’t the only big losers of the U.K.’s general election.
After dominating Scottish politics for years, the pro-independence Scottish National Party is having a terrible night as votes continue to be counted in the U.K. election.
The election’s official exit poll — published when voting ended at 10 p.m. — indicated that the SNP would fall to just ten seats. The SNP won 48 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the 2019 election.
Such a result would be a disaster for the SNP, which claimed that winning a majority of seats in this election would represent a fresh mandate for independence. The party’s embattled leader, John Swinney, will face questions about what such a reversal means for the party’s pro-independence dreams.
“It’s a very poor result for the Scottish National Party tonight,” Swinney told the BBC. “There will be a lot of soul searching we will have to do as a party.”
“It’s going to be a f***ing rotten night for the SNP … the general picture is bleak,” said a former SNP adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity.
An SNP candidate, also speaking on condition of anonymity, argued that their party has “struggled to get a hearing in the national debate,” pointing to voters’ desire to get rid of the Conservative government.
Early results Friday indicated that the SNP is facing huge losses — mostly at the hands of a rejuvenated Scottish Labour Party.
Scottish Labour won in the Ayrshire seat of Kilmarnock and Loudoun, coming from a third place finish in 2019 to win ahead of the SNP. Scottish Labour repeated the trick in East Renfrewshire, with another third-to-first leap.
Scottish Labour’s rise came as the SNP’s popularity in Scotland fell. The SNP has faced a series of scandals, alongside declining faith in its management of the devolved Scottish government. The party has also struggled to find a leadership figure with the same national profile as Sturgeon, who stepped down under a cloud in 2023.
“To some extent people have fallen out of love with us and we must ask why,” Ian Blackford, the SNP’s former Westminster leader, told the BBC.
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