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SNP surge to success in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine

UK General Election count at the AECC for Gordon, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and Banff and Buchan.    
Stuart Donaldson, Eilidh Whiteford and Alex Salmond.    
Picture by Kami Thomson
UK General Election count at the AECC for Gordon, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and Banff and Buchan. Stuart Donaldson, Eilidh Whiteford and Alex Salmond. Picture by Kami Thomson

The SNP surge spread to the rural heartland of the Liberal Democrats with West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine candidate Sir Robert Smith dramatically losing his seat after 18 years.

The Conservatives had been optimistic about their chances following a hard-fought campaign but the historic wave of support for the SNP swept 23-year-old Stuart Donaldson to victory, pushing the incumbent into third place.

He took the seat with more than 22,000 votes, while the Tory candidate Alexander Burnett polled 15,916 and Sir Robert 11,812.

Mr Donaldson thanked the people of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine for putting their faith in him, adding: “Robert Smith in the last 18 years has done a fantastic amount of work for the constituency but, as tonight showed, Scotland has chosen the SNP.

“Throughout this campaign I’ve worked hard to knock on every door and I’ll work hard to represent everyone in this constituency.”

Conceding defeat, Sir Robert said the SNP landslide underlined the need for a change in the electoral system.

UK General Election count at the AECC for Gordon, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and Banff and Buchan.     Stuart Donaldson, Eilidh Whiteford and Alex Salmond.     Picture by Kami Thomson
UK General Election count at the AECC for Gordon, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and Banff and Buchan.<br />Stuart Donaldson, Eilidh Whiteford and Alex Salmond.<br />Picture by Kami Thomson

He said: “Clearly there has been a vote for the Yes campaign that has rallied round the SNP and No voters had several parties they could have supported, so we need to see electoral reform so all voices can be represented in parliament and not just one.

“It’s been a great privilege to represent West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. But that’s democracy and it’s important that democracy is seen to be working.”

High profile figures including the Tories’ Michael Gove and George Osbourne and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg visited the constituency in what became a three-way race.

While Sir Robert Smith had held the seat for 18 years, his SNP and Tory opponents were fighting their first ever election.

In 2010 Sir Robert held onto his seat by a margin of more than 7,000 votes (38.4%) with Tory candidate Alex Johnstone coming second on 30.3% and the SNP’s Dennis Robertson third with 15.7%.

This year’s high voter turnout of 75.2 % boosted the nationalist vote in the wake of last year’s referendum when thousands of new voters registered.