Independence Election points to lack of voter appetite for a second push

The general election result is a catastrophe for John Swinney and the Scottish National party, which has dominated politics in Scotland for a decade.

- Severin Carrell

Ten years on from the Scottish independence referendum, the SNP has been swept aside by a resurgent Labour across central and western Scotland, to a far greater degree than opinion polls predicted.

On the eve of the election, Swinney, who is first minister and the SNP leader, had insisted the race in Scotland was too close to call. Unlike Labour's certain victory across England, he said, the SNP was in a nip-and-tuck race with the party in Scotland.

In the event, the SNP has been humiliated, losing 80% of its Westminster seats, down by at least 38. Many of its voters stayed at home to register discontent at the SNP's failure to deliver a second independence referendum or their disillusionment with the series of scandals hitting the party at Holyrood, its policy failures and its divisions over gender recognition.

Others who backed the SNP at previous elections swung behind Keir Starmer's message about kicking the Conservatives out of power, presumably impressed, too, by Labour's newfound discipline and message coherence.