Nationalists are on course for a landslide win in Scotland, obliterating the opposition. The Scottish National Party has taken a string of seats
ADVERTISEMENTNationalists are on course for a landslide win in Scotland, obliterating the opposition.
The Scottish National Party has taken a string of seats from Labour north of the border, giving leader Nicola Sturgeon much to celebrate.
An exit poll predicts the SNP will take 58 out of 59 seats in Scotland.
The nationalists won just six seats in 2010.
The surge in popularity for the party comes just eight months after an independence vote, in which Scots narrowly rejected a call to break away from the UK.
“If the parliamentary arithmetics mean that there is anti-Tories majority, then SNP stands ready to work with Labour to lock David Cameron out of Downing Street,” said Sturgeon.
“If that proves not to be the case because Labour failed to beat Conservatives in England, then the SNP MPs will go to Westminster to stand up for Scotland and to protect Scotland against the Tory government,” she continued.
“But I still hope we can have a situation when we can lock David Cameron out of Downing Street.”
In a stunning victory for the SNP, Labour’s Douglas Alexander, shadow foreign secretary and campaign co-ordinator, lost to 20-year-old politics student Mhairi Black by nearly six thousand votes.
Black becomes the youngest member of parliament since the 19th century.
But despite the headline victories for the SNP in Scotland, the forecasts for other parties – if they ring true – are likely to kill the prospect of an alliance with Labour to oust the Conservatives from government.