SNP Gaining Seats Across Scotland
Nicola Sturgeon's SNP has made sweeping gains across Scotland.
Photo: David Cheskin/PA Wire
Nicola Sturgeon's SNP has made sweeping gains across Scotland, with a dramatic collapse in support for Labour seeing shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander and Scottish leader Jim Murphy both losing their seats.
Nationalist Kirsten Oswald took the party from fourth to first to oust Mr Murphy in East Renfrewshire, ending his 18 year career as an MP
With some constituencies showing swings to the SNP of more than 30%, Mr Alexander, Labour's election campaign chief, was the first big scalp of the night for the nationalists.
Student Mhairi Black, 20, beat the former government minister in Paisley and Renfrewshire South, the seat he had held since 1997.
In Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, which had been the safest Labour seat in Scotland, the SNP easily overturned a majority of more than 23,000 to capture the constituency which had been held by former prime minister Gordon Brown, who did not stand again.
As an SNP landslide swept across the country, Labour candidate Kenny Selbie polled 17,654 votes, nearly 10,000 fewer than nationalist Roger Mullin, who picked up 27,628 votes for the SNP.
Shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran lost her Glasgow East to the nationalists, who appear to be on track to pick up all seven constituencies in the city.
Mr Murphy said it was an enormous'' moment for the SNP, but vowed that his party's fightback starts tomorrow.
He insisted: The fight goes on and our cause continues.
I know hundreds of thousands of Scots still believe in the progressive policies the Labour party stands for.
The Scottish Labour party has been around for more than a century. A hundred years from tonight we will still be around.
Scotland needs a strong Labour party and our fight back starts tomorrow morning.''