Reform face defeat in their first Holyrood bout

Lord Offord leader of Reform, Getty images.

By Iain McLean

Scotland went to the polls last Thursday and the wait for the results is over as counting began Friday morning.

New kids on the block, Reform UK, led by Lord Malcolm Offord, went into the election hoping to win some constituencies, specifically Shettleston and Inverclyde but faced an SNP victory in both.

Lord Malcolm only managed to get 18% of the vote in Inverclyde, coming third after the SNPs 44% and Scottish Labour’s 28%.

Things went slightly better for Thomas Kerr in his Glasgow Ballieston and Shettleston constituency, coming in second with 25.8% of the vote, behind the SNPs 44.7%.

This was the trend for the rest of the day as the constituency vote was fully revealed. They were the only party left empty-handed with zero constituency seats.

This began to turn when the regional lists were announced, as Glasgow gained two Reform MSPs, Thomas Kerr and Kim Schmulian.

Despite this victory, Kerr looked deflated while being interviewed in the Emirates Arena while Offord had already left Braehead before regional votes were announced. However, he won a regional seat in West Scotland.

This was not the only surprise the day held as the Liberal Democrats managed to gain two seats from the SNP; Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch and Caithness, Sutherland and Ross.

This was traded off, however, as the SNP gained Shetland, which has been a Liberal Democrat bastion since 1999.

Despite this loss, Liberal Democrat leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton secured his seat in Edinburgh North Western with 57.2% of the vote.

This wasn’t the only historic change. The Greens picked up Edinburgh Central and Glasgow Southside from the SNP. This gives them their first ever constituency wins in Scotland.

Glasgow Southside was one of the more shocking events of the night as this was the seat of former First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, before she stepped down.

Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, failed to gain his seat in Glasgow Cathcart and Pollok, losing to SNPs, Zen Ghani.

This makes the SNP and the Liberal Democrats the only parties whose leaders were elected through constituency votes, without having to rely on the regional lists.

Reform’s Offord and Conservative’s Findlay secured their seats through the results in the West Scotland region, while Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar won a Glasgow seat.

Scottish Greens other Co-Leader, Gillian McKay, secured her seat in Motherwell through their regional results, while her political partner, Ross Greer, also secured his place in West Scotland.

The biggest takeaway from this, however, was the SNPs failure to gain their projected majority, falling just short with 57 constituency seats, leaving their independence mandate up in the air.