Scottish leader Sturgeon says will work to keep Conservatives out of power

In nearly every seat in Scotland, Ruth Davidson’s party saw its share of the vote increase and the scale of her victories north of the border, despite setbacks down south, saw the Scottish Tory leader declare: “Indyref2 is dead”.

The first minister was speaking after her party lost 21 of the 56 seats it won in 2015 – including those of Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson.

“I’m not going to rush to hasty judgements or decisions but clearly there is thinking for me to do about the SNP result”, she said.

I also congratulate all the other MPs who were either re-elected or who won a seat last night, and pay tribute to those who lost.

In East Dunbartonshire, Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson regained the seat from the SNP’s John Nicolson.

Nevertheless, independence was not the only reason why the SNP suffered its first significant electoral setback in a decade.

The scale of SNP losses predicted by the exit poll suggested transformative progress by the Scottish Conservatives, who took only one seat in Scotland in 2015 but are projected to win 15 seats in this year’s election, according to the exit poll.

This time around, however, it is harder to see the silver lining for Scottish nationalism. Many people who supported independence and voted SNP did so because they wanted to create a more progressive society.

Deputy leader Angus Robertson also lost his seat as the Tories, led by Ruth Davidson, surged in rural areas of Scotland.

In Perth and Perthshire North, a seat the SNP has held since 1997, Pete Wishart held on by just 21 votes.

The SNP won 36.9 per cent of the votes, a drop of 13.1 since 2015.

“With a hung parliament looking likely, any ongoing Tory administration will owe its survival to this new Scottish caucus and the Conservatives” close working relationship with the Democratic Unionists.

The Conservatives won 13 seats in Scotland, the party’s best performance in the country since 1983.

Scottish Conservative Party leader Ruth Davidson, euphoric about her party’s gains in Scotland, said that IndyRef2, the colloquial name for a second referendum, was dead in the water. The largest share of the vote for the Scottish Conservatives since 1979.

Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie voted in Kelty in Fife while Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie cast his ballot in Glasgow. On Friday, the first minister hinted that this timetable might be changing.

Sturgeon’s original intention, endorsed by the Scottish Parliament, was to hold the vote after the Brexit negotiations ended but before the United Kingdom left the European Union, if the deal did not allow Scotland to remain within the single market. Last year, the SNP set up a growth commission headed by former SNP MSP and economist Andrew Wilson, charged with producing a new economic strategy for independence that would resolve the vexed issues of currency and oil revenue volatility.

Faced with a more radical Corbyn-led Labour Party, they were outflanked to the left and could no longer claim the moral high ground as they have been able to in the past.

The SNP struggled to articulate an effective campaign message.

The former nationalist leader, who was first elected as an MP 30 years ago in 1987, was defeated by Tory Colin Clark, who said in his victory speech: “The silent majority have spoken”.

Among the biggest surprises on the night was the success of Scottish Labour.

Scottish Labour, meanwhile, surprised even themselves by gaining six seats in an election where they would have been quietly happy to retain the one seat they won at their bad election night in 2015 – Edinburgh South.

The phrase “now is not the time” seems to have more weight after the election, with or without Theresa May behind it.