Scottish political map redrawn after SNP rout – Taipei Times

• Bloomberg and AFP, BELFAST

Scotland faces a significant political reset after the Labour Party pummeled the Scottish National Party (SNP) in UK-wide elections, dealing a thumping setback to its already-fading hopes of forcing another independence referendum.

As Labour swept to emphatic victories north and south of the border, and routed the ruling Conservatives, the SNP wilted to its worst performance in more than a decade. It won just eight of Scotland’s 53 districts counted so far — fewer seats nationally than the Liberal Democrats. With the SNP now only the fourth-largest party in Westminster, the result muffles the pro-breakaway Scottish voice across the UK.

The result caps a torrid couple of years for the SNP. The party’s leadership has been in turmoil, police have been investigating its finances and its running of the Scottish government has come under increasing criticism. However, SNP leaders past and present preached a message of contrition and defiance.

First Minister John Swinney, appointed to the job in May to calm the turmoil in the party, pledged a period of soul searching. Nicola Sturgeon, one of his predecessors, maintained that the election in Scotland was all about ousting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak from Downing Street in London.

“This was always going to be a really tough night for us,” she told STV.

The outcome all but kills off the party’s plan to press for another vote on independence, something both the Conservatives and Labour repeatedly rejected anyway. The SNP now has two years to regroup before it faces a Scottish Parliamentary election in 2026.

“On independence, the issue has not gone away, but we need to focus hard on making it relevant to people,” Sturgeon said.

In other news, pro-Irish unity party Sinn Fein has become Northern Ireland’s largest party in London for the first time, holding its seven parliamentary seats while the largest pro-UK party lost three of its eight. Sinn Fein, formerly the political wing of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army during the British region’s long-running conflict known as the “Troubles,” is also the largest party at council level and at the devolved Northern Ireland assembly.

Newly elected Sinn Fein MPs — who abstain from taking up their seats in the UK parliament because they do not recognize British sovereignty over Northern Ireland, include former UK midwives’ union head Pat Cullen.