SNP holds two seats in Scotland’s ‘Yes City’

The SNP has retained its two Dundee seats, but Labour ran the party close in both constituencies.

Dundee was nicknamed Scotland’s “Yes City” after it backed independence in the 2014 referendum, as well as years of subsequent support for the SNP.

But Labour increased its share of the vote by 14.5% and 23.2% respectively in Dundee Central and Broughty Ferry and Arbroath.

Chris Law of the SNP took the new Dundee Central seat with a majority of just 675.

That is in stark contrast to four years ago, when Mr Law won Dundee West by 12,259 votes.

The SNP’s Stephen Gethins won the new seat of Broughty Ferry and Arbroath, which is formed from the previous Dundee East and Angus constituencies.

Mr Gethins received 15,581 votes ahead of Labour’s Cheryl-Ann Cruickshank, who polled 14,722.

The win marks a return to Westminster for the 48-year-old, who was previously the MP for North East Fife from 2015 to 2019.

The SNP held all its seats across Tayside, with Pete Wishart winning Perth and Kinross-shire and Dave Doogan taking Angus and Perthshire Glens.

Mr Wishart, who was first elected in 2001, is the party’s longest serving current MP.

He said it had been “a tough night for the party”.

Mr Wishart said the SNP will need to refocus and renew the trust of the Scottish public and will also need to review how they fought the campaign.

The SNP’s wins in Tayside were not mirrored in Central Scotland, where the party saw all three of its previously-held seats taken by Labour.

On paper at least, these seats had been seen as straight fights between the SNP and Conservatives.

But Labour’s national dominance was reflected across the region, with the party leapfrogging their two rivals to win Alloa and Grangemouth, Falkirk, and Stirling and Strathallan.

Falkirk had been seen as a safe SNP seat – in the 2019 election it had the highest numerical majority of any SNP-won seat in Scotland (14,948).

But last night, Labour’s Euan Stainbank turned the seat red, increasing his party’s share of the vote by 30.9%, while the SNP’s share dropped by 20.5%.

In Alloa and Grangemouth, Labour’s Brian Leishman beat the SNP’s John Nicolson.

Mr Leishman received 18,309 votes to Mr Nicolson’s 11,917.

It represented a 29.3% increase in voter share for Labour, while the SNP’s share plummeted by 23.8%.

Labour completed its hat-trick of Central Scotland wins with Chris Kane taking Stirling and Strathallan from the SNP’s Alyn Smith.

The Conservatives’ dismal night across the UK included poor results across Tayside and Central Scotland.

The party finished second in only two of the seven seats after losing votes to Reform.

Reform outperformed the Conservatives in both Alloa and Grangemouth and Dundee Central, finishing third and fourth respectively.