Douglas Ross insists 'no regrets' as political gamble fails with loss to SNP

Douglas Ross – the leader of the Scottish Conservatives - insisted he had “no regrets” as he failed to be elected to Westminster in one of the most bruising results of the night.

Mr Ross was standing in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East after parachuting himself into the seat in place of incumbent Conservative MP David Duguid, who has been recovering in hospital from a spinal illness since April.

The new MP is the SNP’s Seamus Logan, a councillor in the Fraserburgh area who formerly worked as a coach driver and tour guide.

Mr Logan won 13,455 votes to 12,513 for Mr Ross, who blamed the rise of Reform UK, which came third in the poll with 5,562 votes, for allowing the SNP to take the seat.

The Conservative leader shook Mr Logan’s hand before his own result was read out.

Mr Ross controversially became the candidate for the seat at the last minute, after party officials ruled Mr Duguid was unable to stand given his health. Mr Duguid insisted he was fit to stand.

Mr Ross said: “What we knew was going to be a risk here was the Reform vote was going to allow the SNP in through the back door and I think so far this is the highest vote we have seen in Scotland, almost 15 per cent.

"And that was the risk, that is what we warned people about. We now have a nationalist MP who is elected on a portfolio to separate Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom. The Reform Vote here was significant.”

Earlier, Mr Ross said Duguid controversy had been one of the issues raised on the doorstep.

On whether the ousting of Mr Duguid had a bearing on the final result, Mr Ross said: "I think when we look at it, the 15 per cent Reform vote is what changed this election. Reform already had a candidate when David Duguid was the candidate and they stood in every seat across Scotland, so 15 per cent of the vote going to Reform has allowed SNP to win this seat.

"The big factor here is the Reform vote. I think that would have been a risk for any candidate.”

Asked if he regretted standing, Mr Ross said: “No, I don’t and I was thinking about this on the way through. No. Could I have done things differently? Absolutely. There is not a shadow of doubt about that. I took the decision to stand as a candidate. I worked as hard as I could.

"Do I regret putting myself forward? No, I don’t.”

Mr Ross will now stand down as leader of the Scottish Conservatives, but will return to Holyrood as a MSP for Highlands and Islands.

Asked whether it was embarrassing for him to return to Holyrood, Mr Ross said: “It is deeply disappointing, but I knew this was a possibility, I said this back when I was first standing that the SNP would throw everything at this seat. [SNP leader] John Swinney made a rare appearance in this part of North East of Scotland during the campaign.

"It will now be interesting to see what the SNP do for this area with a party that wants to take Scotland back into the EU, back into the Common Fisheries Policy. There will now be many fishermen in coastal communities waking up to a nationalist MP who doesn’t really agree with them on all sorts of issues.

"A big chunk of voters have gone for Reform and that was allowed SNP to win.

"But I also take my share of responsibility. I took a decision to stand here, I also led the party’s campaign nationally so I am not shirking on that either. I will carry that burden with me.”

Mr Ross said the rise of Reform UK was affecting Conservative candidates across the country and pointed to the defeat of fellow Tory Penny Mordaunt, who lost to Labour and had her 15,000 majority overturned.

He said: “But I am not absolving myself here. I ran this campaign both locally and nationally and I accept my share of responsibility.”

Stephen Flynn - the leader of the SNP at Westminster - meanwhile said his party had been “thumped” in the general election with urgent and honest talks required to determine why nationalists failed so badly at the polls.

The SNP MP, who was re-elected to Aberdeen South, described his win as  “bittersweet” given that watching colleagues and friends lose their seats had been “tough to take”.

Mr Flynn was re-elected to Aberdeen South with 15, 213 votes – 32.8 per cent -  with Labour’s M. Tauqeer Malik taking second place in the hotly contested seat with 11,455 votes – an increase of 15.9 per cent on 2019. Overall, the party is facing its worst result since 2010.

Mr Flynn said: "It is bittersweet. To win an election is a very proud moment but then to turn and look at the television and see your friends and colleagues lose their seats is tough to take. We are going to get thumped tonight and I think everyone knows that.

"Now we are going to have to do what is difficult in politics, sometimes, which is to pull back the curtain, look at some of the skeletons in your closet, realise what the problems have been, try and put them right and put them right in quick time.

"We are going to have to take into consideration that the public wanted a change in Number 10 and they got a change in Number 10 and now we need to make sure that we are holding a UK Labour government to account.”

On accepting the result, Mr Flynn said it was “quite clear to all of us that the SNP is having a difficult night”.

He said: “We are experiencing something that we have not experienced for quite some time. Now is the time that we must learn, we must listen to what people of Scotland have told us. We are going to be beat in Scotland and we are going to be beat well.

“But 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 we hold dear. My colleagues and I who are returned to Westminster continue to put Scotland’s interests first and to serve the people of Scotland, who hopefully will regain the trust which has been lost in this election.”

Mr Flynn declined to be drawn on where the issues lay within the party given it was 5am and that he had been up for 24 hours.

“I think that at 5 o’clock in the morning it would be remiss of me – and I have been up for 24 hours thanks to my kids – for me to try and pinpoint anything. I will wait for the party to come together and we will make sure that we have that internal frank discussion on how we can makes things better.”

He said the mood within the party was “gutted” and that many members were used to the SNP doing “extremely well” in every election. 

Mr Flynn said: “That has not happened tonight and to see your colleagues losing their seats is really tough to take. It is not a reflection on their abilities or the work that they have done in parliament, they deserved better. We have not been able to deliver as a collective.”

It was necessary to “get our house in order, quickly and effectively”, Mr Flynn said, as he stressed everyone had to be willing to be “honest and open”.

“There are some things that are of our control , such as the desire to get the Tories out of Number 10,” he said. “But it is not good enough for us to pretend that is why we suffered.

“It is quite clear that when you lose an election that you have done something wrong. Trust in politics at the moment is at a very low ebb. It is very rare to see a pile of papers that have been scribbled on, I will say, by members of the public to such a scale as we have seen tonight. Voter turnout is also down. That is a reflection on all of us.”

In Aberdeen North, Kirsty Blackman held the seat for SNP but her massive majority of 12,670 was slashed to just 1,760 after Labour candidate Lynn Thomson increased the party’s share of the vote by 18.3 per cent. Ms Blackman declined to speak to The Scotsman.

Thursday’s disappointment for Mr Ross is a far cry from his political beginnings, which saw him win a seat on Moray Council in 2007 aged 24.

Over the ensuing years, he battled for a seat at Westminster and Holyrood – but failed each time, before winning a regional seat for the Highlands and islands in 2016 at the Scottish Parliament.

A year later he hit his political high watermark. In a torrid election for the SNP, which saw the party drop from 56 to 35 seats, Mr Ross defeated SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson.

He would walk away from Holyrood to focus on the Commons, sitting on the backbenches until being appointed a minister in the Scotland Office by Boris Johnson in 2019.

He found himself under fire in 2017 when, asked what he would do if he was prime minister for the day, Mr Ross said he would “like to see tougher enforcement against Gypsy Travellers”.

The comments were widely condemned, forcing him to apologise, and would be revived by opponents later in his career.

The then Moray MP left the UK government in the early months of the pandemic in protest against the actions of controversial Number 10 adviser Dominic Cummings, who had driven from London to Durham during lockdown.

In the summer of 2020, Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw quit, with some reports claiming he was ousted by senior party figures who intended to replace him with Mr Ross.

Mr Ross won the leadership contest unchallenged and appointed former leader Ruth – now Baroness – Davidson as the leader of the party in Holyrood, deputising while he was still an MP.

In the 2021 election, Mr Ross returned to Holyrood atop his party’s Highlands and islands list and took over leadership duties.

He fended off a Labour Party showing the early sparks of resurgence to keep his party on 31 seats.

By October of 2021, Mr Ross was the first MP to announce he would not stand in the next general election – a decision which he would later reverse.

The MP repeatedly reversed field on the premiership of Mr Johnson.

He became one of the highest profile members calling for him to resign over the scandal of parties in Downing Street during lockdown.

But Mr Ross later rescinded his call when the war in Ukraine began, claiming the UK needed to have a strong response.

Months later, he voted against Mr Johnson in a no-confidence vote he went on to win – but the PM resigned weeks later.

During his tenure as head of the Scottish Tories, Mr Ross was frequently criticised for his work as an MP, an MSP and as a professional football assistant referee, being derided by opponents as “three jobs Ross”.

But it was his actions in the midst of the General Election campaign which sealed his fate.