Douglas Ross loses seat to SNP in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East

The outgoing party leader said he would stand down regardless of whether or not he lost the seat in an election contest.

However, he won’t be leaving politics entirely as he will still sit as an MSP. SNP candidate Seamus Logan won with 13,455 votes to Ross’s 12,513.

READ MORE: All the Scottish seats declared so far – see who your MP is

Ross stood in place of former Scotland Office minister David Duguid, who was barred from standing by party chiefs due to ill health. 

In a dramatic U-turn in the middle of the campaign, Ross announced he would stand to be an MP after previously saying he would not do so.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross loses his seat in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East to the SNP’s Seamus Logan. https://t.co/ONKBE5Fsop pic.twitter.com/NgcbY1FWen

— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) July 5, 2024

He had also said he would stand down as an MSP at Holyrood were he to win his seat in Westminster.

Speaking to STV after the declaration, Ross said it was “deeply disappointing” to lose his seat but that he always knew it was a “possibility”.

“When I announced that I was standing, I said the SNP would throw everything at this seat, I said John Swinney would make a rare appearance up to the north east of Scotland,” Ross added. 

“In fact he made more than one rare appearance. It’ll now be interesting to see what the SNP do for this area with an SNP MP who wants to take Scotland back into the European Union, back into the Common Fisheries Policy. 

“They’ll be many fishermen in coastal communities that are now waking up to a nationalist MP who doesn’t really agree with them on a whole host of issues. 

“As I say, we’ve got to look at that result and it is a significant chuck of voters went for Reform and that’s allowed the SNP to win this seat.”

Ross did add however that he “carried the burden” of losing the seat having led the party’s campaign. 

It comes on a difficult night for the Conservatives with dozens of defeats suffered across the UK and Labour set to command a large majority in the House of Commons. 

The SNP currently have seven seats on what has been a difficult night for the party.