The result for the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) in the council elections was “astonishing”, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Speaking from the election count in Glasgow, Scotland’s First Minister heralded her party’s performance, which saw an increase in vote share, seats and majority control of Dundee City Council.
The party won a total of 453 seats in Scotland, an increase of 22 since 2017.
“The results are absolutely incredible for the SNP,” she said.
“The SNP has been in government for 15 years, and today we won the election overwhelmingly – I think the eighth consecutive election victory since I became leader of the SNP – but more than that, we’ve increased our share of the vote, we’ve increased the number of councillors that we have returned, we’re the largest party in more councils today than we were yesterday.
“This is an astonishing result for the SNP and an absolutely brutal rejection of Boris Johnson and the Conservatives.”
The First Minister later told Sky News there was “deep unhappiness” at the leadership of Douglas Ross among the Scottish Tories, adding that his future may be a decision that is taken “out of his hands”.
The First Minister also attributed the improvements seen by Scottish Labour to the collapse in vote seen by the Scottish Tories as opposed to an improvement by Anas Sarwar’s party.
“Our opponents are scrapping it out for second place and Labour will be pleased to have taken second place from the Tories, although I think that’s more to do with the disastrous performance of the Tories than it is to do with any genuine advance for Labour,” she said.
“They’ll want to find scraps of comfort on this, but the SNP has won this election overwhelmingly and I’m not going to let anybody take away from the achievement of councillors, activists and supporters across the country – it’s a fantastic result for the SNP.”
