Salmond hails 'historic' win as Labour goes into freefall

Published on Monday 8 June 2009 11:02

ALEX Salmond today hailed a "historic" victory after the SNP humiliated Labour in the battle for Scottish votes in the European elections.

The Nationalists took 29 per cent of the votes across Scotland to Labour's 21 per cent. And Labour was forced into third place in Edinburgh behind the SNP and the Tories.

Across the UK, Labour ended up in third place with just 15.3 per cent of the vote, behind the Tories who took 28.6 per cent and UKIP on 17.4 per cent.

It is grim news for Prime Minister Gordon Brown ahead of tonight's meeting of Labour MPs at Westminster, where he could face fresh calls for his resignation.

The SNP succeeded in its aim of winning the biggest share of the votes across Scotland. But the share-out of Scotland's six seats in the European Parliament will give the SNP and Labour two each and the Tories and Liberal Democrats one each.

And Labour just managed to avoid dropping below 20 per cent, the psychologically significant threshold which the SNP fell below in the last European elections, triggering John Swinney's resignation as leader.

Labour came third in Alistair Darling's Edinburgh South West seat, with the SNP narrowly beating the Tories to top the poll.

The SNP also polled the biggest number of votes in Edinburgh East and Edinburgh North & Leith and the Tories came first in Edinburgh South.

Mr Salmond said: "This is a historic result for the SNP, up ten points on the last European election and the first time we have ever won a UK-wide election in Scotland."

"This is Labour's worst share of the vote since before World War One and the emergence of the modern Labour Party."

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray acknowledged "disappointing" results for his party: "The public have been deeply disillusioned by the expenses scandal and Labour, as the government, has taken the main hit.

"But as Gordon Brown said, Labour's priorities are to clean up politics and work towards economic recovery."

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, SNP MSP for Edinburgh East & Musselburgh, said: "Labour is paying a heavy price for their current shambolic state. This also shows the hard work of the SNP in the city of Edinburgh." He said the results could not be translated directly into a forecast for the general election. But, he said: "It shows the direction of travel. These are good results for the SNP. It is clear Labour has a lot to fear from the SNP."

He said the expenses scandal had played a big part in the election. "But what is also clear is the SNP is going forward on its own merit."

Labour's Lothians-based MEP David Martin said Labour's result could have been worse: "In the current climate, the Labour vote has held up across the city. We were in an absolutely unique situation of a political crisis thanks to the expenses and the economic crisis of the recession, which people in Edinburgh are feeling because of the banks, but our vote was still fairly respectable.

"It looks as if our voters stayed at home rather than come out and vote against us, which is encouraging because it suggests they didn't want to vote for any other party. And that chimes with what people were telling us on the doorstep, which was they were not going to vote Labour this time - but they hinted they would be back at the general election."

Tory MEP Struan Stevenson said he was "highly encouraged" by the Edinburgh result: "Edinburgh Conservatives have worked very hard for this result and they deserve it. It shows some of these seats are going to be a three-way fight."