SNP Westminster candidate for Banff & Buchan Eilidh Whiteford has hailed the local results in last week's European Elections as spectacular for the SNP.
Across Aberdeenshire, the SNP vote was up around 10% on the last Euro Elections in 2004 taking the total SNP vote to a massive 35.5%. Nationally, in a bad night for the Conservatives, they saw their representation halved when they lost one of their Scottish seats in the European Parliament.
Commenting, Eilidh Whiteford said:
"These are truly spectacular results for the SNP. The hard work of our supporters has paid off and, nationally, this is the first time the SNP has won in a UK-wide election and continues our good results from winning the Scottish Parliament elections in 2007.
"Going around the Polling Stations on Thursday many people said to me that the SNP was the only party they had heard from or seen taking its message to the doors during this campaign.
“The Conservatives took a beating across Scotland and lost one of their MEPs when the final results were announced. However, what must be even more galling for them is that even under the current circumstances, the Labour Party still managed to beat them into third place. It speaks volumes for the state of the Tory Party in Scotland that Gordon Brown can still beat them.
"I would like to thank all those who took the time last week to come out and vote SNP for a party which fought a positive campaign about how we as a nation have got what it takes to have our own voice at the top table in Europe."
Results declared last night at the Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre for the Aberdeenshire Council area – comprising the Banff & Buchan, Gordon and West Aberdeenshire constituencies - were:
SNP 18,698 35.5%
Con 12,125 23.0%
Lib Dem 7,657 14.6%
Lab 3,767 7.0%
UKIP 3,252 6.0%
Green 3,190 6.0%
Turnout was 29.11%.
Final results for the allocation of seats across Scotland – which sends 6 representatives in total to the European Parliament – are expected at lunchtime today.