RECAP General election 2024: Sir Keir Starmer appoints Cabinet as Labour MPs arrive at Downing Street
Results are coming in General Election 2024, with a sweeping Labour majority expected to send Sir Keir Starmer to Downing Street.
North of the Border, Labour are looking to end more than a decade of SNP domination at Westminster.
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Hide AdJohn Swinney’s party won 48 seats in 2019, while the Tories took six and the Liberal Democrats four. Labour was reduced to a single MP.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party – led in Scotland by Anas Sarwar – has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years against a backdrop of turmoil for the Conservatives, putting Labour in pole position this time around.
But which party will win a series of key seats, as those within Scotland, in particular, remain on a knife edge. The Scotsman is here to bring you all the very latest.
General Election 2024 - Scotsman
Key Events
- SNP down to just ten seats with Labour set for sweeping majority, exit poll says
- Sir Keir Starmer’s party – led in Scotland by Anas Sarwar – has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years against a backdrop of turmoil for the Conservatives
- Support for the SNP had stabilised in our most recent poll from Savanta - but will the party maintain a majority of seats in Scotland under John Swinney?
Welcome to general results night...
It is set to be a long one, with counting to extend well into the early hours of the morning and past dawn across the UK.
Here in Scotland, the question remains on just how well Labour can do and whether the SNP can stem the damage that has followed in the polls from the resignations of Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf as party leaders.
South of the Border, it is looking as though Labour will dominate, with forecasts of a massive landslide for Sir Keir Starmer’s party. But will the margin of any win be quite as big as forecast some weeks ago? And what will like ahead for both Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives?
Scotland boasts a number of the more intriguing local battles in this election, including the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat.
Embattled outgoing Tory leader Douglas Ross is contesting the seat in the stead of former MP David Duguid – who was barred by Conservative bosses due to ill health – but he will not be facing a candidate backed by Labour.
Andy Brown, who was due to stand for the party, was suspended and stripped of support after reports of controversial social media posts, which he denies.
Mr Ross, his wife Krystle and sons James and Alistair held hands as they walked to the polling station in Fogwatt Hall, Fogwatt, near Elgin in Moray to vote earlier today.
Glasgow could also become one of the major stories, with the city dropping from seven seats in the previous Parliament to six due to boundary changes.
Scotland’s biggest city was a Labour stronghold for decades before it lost all of its seats there in 2015 as it struggled to hold on to the unionist vote in Scotland, meaning Glasgow could become a battleground as the party seeks to win some seats back from the SNP.
Mr Sarwar cast his vote at Pollokshields Burgh Hall in Glasgow this morning, accompanied by his wife Furheen and son Aliyan.
After voting, he hugged and shook hands with Labour candidate for Glasgow South West Zubir Ahmed, and shook hands with Labour activists as well as an SNP activist.
A woman with a sign that read “Starmer is a snake” approached and followed Mr Sarwar on to the street, before posing for pictures.
Mr Swinney voted at Burrelton Village Hall, Perthshire.
Accompanied by his 13-year-old son Matthew, the First Minister walked from his home to the polling station, greeting members of the media on the way in.
He also met his candidate Dave Doogan who is running in the Angus and Perthshire Glens constituency.
Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton voted at Davidson’s Mains Parish Church in Edinburgh while co-leaders of the Scottish Greens, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, cast their votes in Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively.
And now with polls shortly set to close at 10pm, it is time for the fun to begin. So strap yourselves in
Rishi Sunak hands out peerages - and some of them won't be popular
The Prime Minister has handed peerages to former prime minister Theresa May, former chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady and his chief of staff in the dissolution honours list.
Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, former chief whip Julian Smith, former defence secretary Ben Wallace and Scotland secretary Alister Jack have been nominated for knighthoods.
The Prime Minister’s chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith has been proposed for a peerage along with former transport secretary Chris Grayling, Sir Alok Sharma and Dame Eleanor Laing.
Among Sir Keir Starmer’s nominations for peerages are Dame Margaret Beckett, Harriet Harman, Margaret Hodge and Kevan Jones.
The exit poll is in...
...and it makes for wonderful reading for Labour, but terrible news for both the Conservatives and the SNP.
The figures for the SNP, based on recent polling, are a shock - with John Swinney’s party forecast to win just ten seats - down by 38 from the total won at the previous 2019 general election.
Nicola Sturgeon isn't mincing words about the SNP seat forecast
Thursday is “not a good night for the SNP”, Nicola Sturgeon has said, as the exit poll suggests the party could drop to as few as ten seats.
The BBC/ITV/Sky survey was published as polls closed at 10pm, predicting a 170-seat majority for Labour across the UK.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party’s success appears to have extended north of the Border, with the SNP losing 38 seats compared with the 2019 election.
Speaking on ITV, the ex-SNP leader reacted minutes after the exit poll suggested her party could lose 38 seats compared to the 2019 election.
“This is not a good night for the SNP on these numbers,” she said.
“I think there will be a question about whether there was enough in the campaign to give out, effectively, a USP to the SNP in an election that was about getting the Tories out and replacing them with Labour.”
She added: “This is at the grimmer end of the expectations for the SNP if the exit poll is right and, from what I’ve said earlier on, I expect it will be.
“This is seismic for Labour. There’s no getting away from that, it’s a massive achievement for Keir Starmer.
“I think it will be interesting as the night progresses to see the extent this is driven by the Tory collapse as opposed to a Labour surge.”
Politics, bloody hell
Well, that exit poll is a bit of a shock eh. The SNP on just ten, Scottish Tories on 12, Reform ending up with 13. It’s looking like an absolutely crazy night, even if I’m not quite sure I believe those figures. Stick with us, we’ll have all the reaction from those in the parties and at the counts.
It’s going to be mega.
Wes-side story
Wes Streeting looks like the cat that got the cream on the BBC, saying he never imagined the party could turn it around in one election, and it’s a testament to the work of Sir Keir Starmer. Says he’s seen a lot of exit polls, and they’ve very rarely looked like this.
The future health secretary says it’s now about rebuilding trust, rebuilding public services, and rebuilding the economy.
First result
We have our first result, after an exciting race over who would declare first.
Houghton and Sunderland South is the seat, with Labour’s soon to be education secretary Bridget Phillipson winning with 18,847 vote, with Reform in second. Second! This could well be the theme of the night.
Brain mogg
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg is currently blaming the ousting of Boris Johnson for the defeat, saying Britain has a presidential system, and people vote for a leader.
Just in case you’d forgotten, Mr Johnson resigned after appointing someone he knew was accused of sexual harassment, and because he was found to have misled parliament over partygate.
But yes, that’s why.
Simply the Wes
Wes Streeting now saying Boris Johnson being ousted wasn’t the problem, but it was because of the fridge of booze being taken in for the illegal parties, the vomit on the floor, Liz Truss crashing the economy, and the Tories being “a clown show with people paying the consequences”.
I think it’s the sort of statement people go “he’s had his weetabix” over. Fighting talk.
ANOTHER ONE?
Hold your horses, we have another result, this time in Blyth & Ashington, where Ian Lavery has held, with Reform in second again. What on earth is happening.
Christine and the Queens Hall
Our political editor, as well as your friend and mine, Alistair Grant gets in touch to say the Lib Dems are confident they’ve won in Edinburgh West, which was expected. That’s Christine Jardine likely returning to Westminster.
Is this too much?
As interesting as the votes are, the story of the night so far is quite clearly this woman’s outfit, seen as she read out the result in Blyth & Ashington. No idea why she’s dressed like this, if she’s a time traveller, or how it happened, but I absolutely love it.
Willie campaigner
Here’s former Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie MSP speaking at the Fife Count. He said: “We are moving on from our coalition period, we have learned lessons. People are returning to Lib Dems in significant numbers because we have had a very positive campaign with a very positive message. “I have never felt such anger towards the SNP as I have seen in this campaign. The shine has come off the party.”
View to a thrill
Interested in how a count looks? Well lucky you, here’s my colleague Rachel Amery showing off the view in Perth and Kinross-shire.
A new dawn has broken, has it not
Sunderland showing off at this point, announcing yet another result.
Lewis Atkinson has won for Labour, beating the Reform candidate by just over 6000 votes.
All his rivals applaud, except Reform, shock.
Smooth exit
I’m hearing Robert Buckland, the former Lord Chancellor and Wales Secretary, has lost in Swindon South. First big name to fall if so, and one with the nicest voice on politics. So soft. So smooth. So out of here.
Who's who
Here’s more from our political correspondent Rachel Amery at the Perth and Kinross-shire count. She says: “Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie is here for the SNP, along with some local councillors (Perth and Kinross is an SNP-run council). In the Conservative camp, Murdo Fraser MSP, Roz McCall MSP and Alexander Stewart MSP are all here. Provost Xander McDade is also here - although he is an independent councillor. First Minister John Swinney is expected to arrive at this count in a couple of hours time.
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