Election 2019
- Donald Turvill
- Dec 12, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Dec 15, 2019
05:05
The rest of the North-East seat declarations are as follows:
A West & Kincardine: Conservtive Hold
Banff & Buchan: Conservative Hold
Gordon: SNP Gain
And a reminder of earliers results:
A North: SNP Hold
A South: SNP Gain
That’s all for tonight. Thanks for joining.
03:57
Speaking to us after the declaration for Aberdeen South and just moments after it was announced his party leader, Jo Swinson, has failed to hold onto her seat, Aberdeen South Lib-Dem candidate, Ian Yuill says "it's very sad. I think it's undeserved, I think she's been a good constituency MP and, although just for a few months, was very promising new leader of the Liberal Democrats and it's very sad for Jo and her team in East Dunbartonshire".
Asked if she should step down as party leader, he replies "that's a matter for another day".
03:50
SNP's Stephen Flynn has comfortably won Aberdeen South, taking the seat from the Conservatives. Flynn, who tells the crowd he has a baby due over the next few days, says: "This election has been, in my view, two key issues in Aberdeen. No matter where we went, two issues came up. The first was Tory austerity. Tory austerity has hammered the poorest in Aberdeen South for the best part of a decade.
"The second thing which undoubtedly came up was Brexit. We will fight tooth and nail to stop it and fight tooth and nail to protect Aberdeen".
03:27
The Conservatives have held on to Moray, electing Douglas Ross, who beat the SNP's Laura Mitchell by only 513 votes. This result gives the Conservative party their first Scottish seat.
03:15
In the first of the North-East seat decelerations, the SNP's Kirsty Blackman has comfortably held onto her Aberdeen North constituency, which was widely-expected.
In a short speech, the former depute SNP leader at Westminster said it is a "massive honour to serve my city" and that the polls are showing that "people in Scotland are rejecting Tory austerity and Brexit".
Watch below:
02:18
The turnout for Gordon was 70.41%, Banff and Buchan 63.55%. Not long until North-East results begin to come in.
The consensus in the rooms seems to be that the SNP are likely to take most NE seats, with Aberdeen South and Banff & Buchan the ones to watch.
01:17
Aberdeen South turnout: 69.64% up just over one percentage point from 2017.
It has been overheard that the Conservatives still think they have a chance of winning this seat.
01:01
It has just been announced that the turnout for Aberdeen North was 59.99% with 37,485 ballots cast, up 0.8% from 2017.
00:52
The anonymous party sources are beginning to do the rounds. Simon Johnson, the Telegraph's Scottish political editor, says that 'Tory sources' say that the Conservatives are ahead in Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine, contrary to the exit poll prediction.
Evening Express reporter, Jamie Hall, also said Lib-Dem sources claim they are ahead of Labour in Aberdeen South.
23:42
Gillian Martin, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, says she is not getting her hopes up straight away and is treating the exit poll with "extreme caution".
Speaking to Governing Grampian shortly after the release of the exit poll predicting a gain of 20 seats for the SNP, she said: "People hear that 55 seats and you have to take that with a big pinch of salt; they don't include postal votes of course, they have been accurate in the past, extremely accurate in 2015, but personally I like to wait and see how things unfold".
Asked how she'd react if the exit polls' predictions are true, she replied: "I'm going to be honest with you I feel really sad, if it's a good result for the SNP then that'll be a bit of a silver lining on an otherwise very dark cloud because I really care about what happens to my colleagues, friends and family in England and Wales".
A conservative majority will mean they will gain the necessary power to go ahead legislating Brexit to leave by the end of January. Martin says her concerns lie not only with Brexit but what the Conservatives plan to do beyond this.
"No ones asking any questions, because this election has been about Brexit, the Conservatives and Boris Johnson have not really been scrutinised on what their plans are beyond that.
Gillian says she hopes that this will be the last general election her party will be fighting.
22:52
We have arrived at the vote count for constituencies across Aberdeen. The exit poll is indicating a comfortable Tory majority, catastrophic Labour defeat and a very good night for the SNP, who are on course to gain 20 seats.
The poll foresees a 99% of SNP victory in Aberdeen North, Banff and Buchan, Gordon and Moray, 93% chance of an SNP win in Aberdeen South and an 88% that the party will also take West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine.
Nothing yet is final, however, and many counting tables still sit empty here at the P&J Live.
Follow us here through the night as we bring you analysis, results and interviews.
18:10
Predictions and projections are, of course, rocky ground and have proved wrong in recent years, as popular pro-independence political account Wings Over Scotland points out, Tweeting a photo of exit-poll forecasts by the BBC at the 2017 General Election, when it implied that the vote would be split 51/49 between the SNP and Liberal Democrats in Gordon, where the Conservatives won. Here is the list in full from 2017:
17:55
It's important to remember that Aberdeen South and Banff and Buchan are two seats to watch very closely as results come in, as their results could be indicative of how the Conservatives will do overall, as explained by this Washington Post analyst on Twitter.
17:36
Here are the estimates times that votes will be declared across the North-East:
Aberdeen North - 3am
Aberdeen South - 3am
Gordon - 5am
Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine - 5am
Exit polls to be released soon after polls close at 10. One user on Twitter claims that the BBC will be publishing exit polls for individual constituencies.
Governing Grampian will be live from the Aberdeen North count through the night brining you results as they come in, interviews and analysis. Also follow along on Twitter @GovGramp.
15:17
Some interesting developments past hour: data from a final Scotland-only poll published by Survation projects 51.4% of the North-East Scotland vote share going to the SNP, with a national average of 43.2% for the party hoping to steal back several seats from the Conservatives.
And one user on Twitter reports a number of Labour supporters are helping the SNP in some seats.
And more sand art from the Beach...
13:42
Voters all across the North-East are heading to their local polling place after they opened their doors at 7am, remaining open until 10pm tonight. With opinion polls in this part of the country predicting some very close races between the Conservatives and SNP, it is an election in which every last vote will count for both sides. Some polling stations are reported to busier than expected, with queues at polling stations reported all around the country including Aberdeen South, Aberdeen North and Dundee.
Several Twitter users have also posted photos of writing in the sand which appeared on Aberdeen beach this morning.
And it wouldn't be election coverage without some dogs outside polling stations...
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