SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn hangs on to seat

The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has hung on to his seat to be re-elected as MP for Aberdeen South – but his majority has been reduced to 3,758.

Mr Flynn secured 15,213 votes (32.8%) to the Labour candidate’s 11,455 (24.7%).

The Conservatives were third with 11,300 (24.4%) and Reform on 3199 (6.9%).

The Lib Dems secured 6.3% and the Greens 3.5%.

In a speech following his re-election, the Mr Flynn said: “We are experiencing something that we have not experienced for quite some time.

“We are going to be beat in Scotland, we are going to be beat well.”

Addressing the crowds at the count in Aberdeen, he said: “Now is the time when we must learn and we must listen.

“We must listen to what the people of Scotland tell us.

“When you are knocked down, you have to get back up.

“And when you get back up you must be willing to inspire, you must be bold in your action and you must be committed to the values which you hold dear.”

Mr Flynn said that he ahd his colleagues would “continue to put Scotland’s interests first, to serve the people of Scotland and hopefully regain the trust that has been lost at this election”.

The party, he later told the BBC, had “not been doing as well as we could”.

His deputy at Westminster, Kirsten Oswald, was ousted in East Renfrewshire by Blair McDougall – the former head strategist of the Better Together campaign in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.