Scottish Nationalist Party leader Nicola Sturgeon is to warn Prime Minister David Cameron that “Scotland’s voice has to be heard” after the SNP comprehensively routed Labour north of the border, winning an historic 56 Westminster seats.
While Cameron pledged to give Holyrood (Scottish Parliament) “important powers over taxation”, the Conservative leader does not appear to be offering any substantial new devolution.
He spoke after a watershed General Election left the UK divided, with the Tories winning an unexpected majority across the UK, but north of the border the SNP saw its tally of MPs surge from six five years ago.
Labour, which had taken 41 seats north of the border in 2010, was left with just one Scottish MP, with Scottish party leader Jim Murphy and election campaign chief Douglas Alexander among those who lost their seats.
While Ed Miliband announced he is stepping down as UK leader of the party, Mr Murphy insisted he will stay in his job in Scotland in a bid to rebuild his ailing party.
The tectonic plates in Scottish politics have shifted
In an unprecedented night for the SNP, it took all seven of the seats in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, with shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran among the losers there.
Former leader Alex Salmond was returned to Westminster as the new MP for Gordon after seizing the constituency from the Liberal Democrats.
Senior figures from the Lib Dems were also ousted in the nationalist landslide, with Danny Alexander, who had been chief secretary to the Treasury, and former party leader Charles Kennedy both ejected from the Commons.
Sturgeon’s party won 50 per cent of the votes cast in Scotland, compared to just 20 per cent in 2010. In comparison Labour saw its share of the vote fall to 24 per cent, with the Conservatives on just under 15 per cent in Scotland and the Lib Dems on 7.5 per cent.
Labour’s Ian Murray managed to retain his Edinburgh South seat in the face of the SNP tsunami, as did Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael, who held on to Orkney and Shetland with a reduced share of the vote.
David Mundell, who was Scotland’s only Conservative MP in 2010, is still the single Tory representative north of the border.
As the results came in Salmond declared that the ‘’Scottish lion has roared’’.
Meanwhile Sturgeon said: “The political firmament, the tectonic plates in Scottish politics have shifted. What we are seeing is a historic watershed.”
The SNP leader, who travelled to London today to take part in the VE Day commemorations, said she was “deeply disappointed that Labour wasn’t strong enough to beat the Conservatives in England”.
But she added: “Given that we are looking at a Tory majority government, it is all the more important that Scotland is strongly represented by a big team of SNP MPs. The other point to make, and it’s a point I’ll make directly to the Prime Minister, the government cannot ignore what happened in Scotland last night.
“There was an overwhelming vote for Scotland’s voice to be heard, for an end to continued austerity, and those issues which we put so firmly at the heart of the campaign we now intend to put firmly at the heart of the Westminster agenda.
“SNP MPs are there to stand up for Scotland, it is inconceivable that a government would ignore the democratic will of the Scottish people, which was expressed very, very clearly last night.”