Labour clean sweep of gains in Edinburgh
Conservatives and SNP suffer a night of humiliation as voters produce a damning verdict on governments in Westminster and Holyrood
It was a night of cheers and tears. High drama and low turnout. A night when Labour’s cautious general Sir Keir Starmer won total victory - by keeping his powder dry.
Criticised for not being more aggressive, more radical, for not placing clearer blue policy water between Labour and its rivals, his approach nevertheless did something no Labour leader has achieved since Tony Blair.
He won an election – and he won big. As Napoleon Bonaparte said as he marched through Europe “never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
And boy, you can’t help but think that Sir Keir won big to some degree because he didn’t interrupt Rishi Sunak and his bedraggled Conservatives or the SNP as they were making mistake after mistake.
In Edinburgh, his victory translated to a Red Letter Day as Labour staged the biggest comeback since Lazarus. The Tories suffered what Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links, the former Tory leader in Scotland, described as “a massacre.”
Ian Murray, the Edinburgh South MP who was left as “last man standing” in 2019 told cheering supporters as his constituency win was announced, said: “For much of my time as the MP for Edinburgh South, I’ve been Scotland’s sole MP for Labour. It’s been sometimes lonely, often hard, but always hopeful that one day Labour’s values will be recognised as Scotland’s values. Being the sole Labour MP ends tonight with a bang.”
In Scotland things were expected to be much closer between Labour and SNP, but that wasn’t the way it turned out. Swept out of all four Edinburgh seats they held, all going to Labour, and out of every seat in Glasgow. The SNP has been wounded, and with just two years until the Scottish Parliamentary election there is a need to regroup and refocus swiftly.
Top seats at the table
Meantime for Edinburgh and the Lothians there is once again the prospect of a seat at the UK Government top table – in fact two. Douglas Alexander is hotly topped for very high office within the Starmer Cabinet, possibly even as Foreign Secretary, and Edinburgh South MP Ian Murray is almost certain to be Secretary of State for Scotland. Two seats in Cabinet.
When Ian Murray entered the hall at the Royal Highland Centre at Ingliston with fellow candidates Chris Murray, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, and Scott Arthur, Edinburgh South West, at around 2.45am they were met by a phalanx of cheering, happy supporters and activists, with the cheering continuing as Edinburgh North and Leith candidate Tracy Gilbert joined them moments later. It felt triumphal, and it proved to be accurate.
The LibDems provided a similarly rapturous performance for Christine Jardine, as the incumbent in Edinburgh West arrived a little earlier.
For the other parties, the mood was very different. SNP city heavyweights including Angus Robertson and Ben McPherson anticipated their Party’s difficult night, reflecting that a refocus of priorities was required to get back on track. Tories were ashen-faced, silent.
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