Local elections results as they happened: SNP gains and Lib Dem resurgence as Tories take a bruising
and live on Freeview channel 276
Nicola Sturgeon hailed the seismic result and tweeted: “National/city trends aside, this result is seismic. For years, Pollokshields was the only Tory seat in Glasgow and it seemed we would never take it.”
Elsewhere in the city, leader Susan Aiken was overtaken by the Scottish Greens on first preference votes in the Langside ward.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdMeanwhile across Scotland and the UK it was a damaging night for the Conservatives.
Alex Salmond’s Alba party have failed to secure any councillors
Local elections results LIVE: 2022 Scottish council elections as they happened
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar says he is “very confident” his party will be “comfortably” in second place once all the council results are in across Scotland.
He told the BBC: Of course I’m pleased after a decade of being written off, but I want us to build on this. I don’t aspire for Labour to be in second - I aspire for us to be in first place. I had a mammoth task when I took over just over a year ago but we managed to stop Armageddon last year and have demonstrated progress this year, making gains off the SNP and the Tories, winning in parts of Scotland we haven’t won in for a very long time.”
RESULT: The SNP has gained three seats to remain the largest group on North Lanarkshire Council.
They now hold 36 of the available 77.
Labour remain on 32 while the Tories lost five seats to drop to just five.
There are also three independents and one Scottish Green.
RESULT: The SNP remains the biggest party on North Ayrshire Council but the Tories saw gains of +2.
The SNP won 12 of the 33 seats and the Conservatives 10.
Labour are down two on nine. There is one independent.
Looking across the UK...
Analysis for the BBC by Professor Sir John Curtice calculated that if the whole country had been voting on Thursday, Labour would have been five points ahead – its biggest local election lead in a decade.
For grassroots Tories who lost their seats, the cause of their woes was clear with voters still angry over lockdown parties in No 10 in breach of Covid regulations.
The issue of trust in the Prime Minister – who said repeatedly that no rules had been broken – was said to have come up regularly on the doorstep.
The party is also under pressure over the cost-of-living crisis, as soaring energy prices put the squeeze on household incomes.
Conservative MPs in the South and the South West may also be looking nervously at the strong performance of the Liberal Democrats following their recent by-election successes.