SNP win the Scottish council elections

Labour has lost control of Glasgow council the Scottish local elections, where it has been in power since 1980.

Labour now enjoy 12 and the SNP have some ground to make up, now with 6, while the other three seats are made up by the Community Party (2) and one Independent.

Early results from Thursday’s local elections confirmed a pattern of Labour losses across Scotland, together with significant gains for the Conservatives and mixed fortunes for the SNP. If the latter is the case then what is beginning to look like quite a hard election on June 8 may not prove quote such a hurdle after all.

The process can result in complicated leadership arrangements between two or more bodies, and can see independents become kingmakers.

In a surprise result, Labour also lost one Glasgow seat to a 20-year-old Conservative candidate.

He said the party “seems unlikely” to retain control at any of the four councils where it won an overall majority in 2012 – Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.

The Tories are fighting a “titanic battle” in a bid to oust the SNP’s Westminster leader from the Commons, with Ruth Davidson claiming her party has a “pretty good” chance of victory.

One explanation is that in Scotland the debate about Brexit is overshadowed by the argument over independence and the prospect of a second referendum. The Labour group in the capital will be king-maker, with 12 seats. The SNP also lost control of the city of Dundee, one of the few places that backed breaking away from the United Kingdom in a 2014 plebiscite.

True, the SNP now has far more councillors than any other party, but its total tally of seats has remained much the same.

Across Scotland, Kezia Dugdale’s party endured a disappointing collapse, losing numerous seats in previous party strongholds.

The SNP said it increased the party’s number of councilors compared with the last local elections in 2012.

“The SNP are clearly the favourite in this election and I think it’s important to look at the vote in that context”.

The Scottish National Party becomes the biggest party on the council, though without the overall majority it had hoped to achieve.

Meanwhile, in the Highlands, the Tories secured another big result as they took 10 seats after more than two decades in the electoral wilderness in the north.

Labour has lost control of Glasgow for the first time in almost 40 years.

Ward 3 – Forfar & District – Colin Brown, Independent; Braden Davy, Conservative; Lynne Devine, SNP; Ian McLaren, Independent.

Sturgeon has explicitly ruled out doing any deals with the Tories, even though the SNP had two coalitions with Conservative councillors after the 2012 election.