Scotland’s independence party scores well but no majority

The SNP members elected fell two short of a majority and Ms Sturgeon announced on Friday she will lead a minority administration at Holyrood – ruling out speculation over possible coalition.

But as the rosettes are unpinned and the work begins today in forming factions and ruminating over the what-ifs of the complex mathematics of the Scottish proportional representation system, one statistic has remained stubbornly, curmudgeonly unchanged from the last Scottish Parliament election in 2011.

Ms Sturgeon added: “It’s fair to say the victory of the SNP on Thursday was emphatic and that is the political reality we now carry with us into a new parliamentary term”.

Tory education spokeswoman Liz Smith said a climbdown from Ms Sturgeon would be the first sign that she is serious about being a “consensus First Minister”.

Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie described the SNP as “arrogant” and insisted the party needed “a change of attitude”.

The fact that the SNP, against all predictions, failed to win a majority, and that Labour found itself playing third fiddle in Holyrood, shows clearly that the Scots wanted clarity of principle.

She instead re-affirmed her commitment for a campaign to be launched in the summer to change minds on the issue.

The Scottish Conservatives more than doubled their tally of MSPs to 31 but Miss Davidson said she was conscious much of the support came from voters who “surprised themselves” by backing the Tories.

Interviewer Gordon Brewer said: “You talked about having an unequivocal mandate”.

She said: “We knew that Nicola Sturgeon was doing a full-on presidential-style campaign so that did require me to do a lot of the heavy lifting in the campaign”.

And we are the first party in the era of devolution to poll more than one million votes in constituencies across the country.

Labour lost 23 council seats across England in the May 5 vote, which saw more than 2,700 spots contested.

“Separatists win Scottish elections”, declared Russia’s rolling news channel.

The result of the election was emphatic – the people of Scotland once again placed their trust in the SNP to govern our country.

In an email, Ms Dugdale said: “We could have fought an election that was about the arguments of two years ago but we chose to stand up for what we believe in”.

Green co-convener Patrick Harvie said: “There are real opportunities in the next session for the Greens to push the government beyond its comfort zone”.

Speaking at the Apex Hotel in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, Ms Davidson said: “Majority government has not worked well – too often over the last five years the SNP pushed through its agenda not on the strength of its case, but simply on strength of numbers”.

“So, yes I will reach out and I was very clear yesterday that I want to lead an inclusive government, I want to find and build on common ground where I can, but I will do that not so much because I have to do it but because I want to do it”.

The U.K. Labour Party’s finance spokesman, John McDonnell, ruled out a bid to wrest the leadership from Jeremy Corbyn, days after Labour became the first opposition party in three decades to lose seats outside of a general election year.

“But I think the public have a way of correcting things, and I think they were slightly uncomfortable with the slightly overbearing arrogance of the SNP government and they’ve decided that they want a proper opposition.

I’ll keep fighting for our values”.