SNP loses 'damaging' 38 seats so far as final result delayed

First Minister John Swinney has described the general election result as "very, very difficult and damaging" for the SNP, as Labour made dramatic gains in Scotland.

As his party suffered a series of big losses, Mr Swinney said there would need to be "soul searching" following a "very poor result".

Mr Swinney continued: “We’ve got to listen carefully, we’ve got to listen attentively, to what the public are saying to us in this election result and on a variety of other topics and questions around the country.”

The SNP was defending 48 seats of the 57 in Scotland but is likely to be reduced to around ten seats - its worst result since 2010.

It was also a bad night for the Conservative leader in Scotland, Douglas Ross, who failed in his controversial bid to become the MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East.

Labour made gains across the central belt, with most of their results following vote share swings of about 20% from the SNP.

In Glasgow, Labour took all six seats from the SNP.

And in the capital, the SNP's Joanna Cherry lost her Edinburgh South West seat to Labour, as did Tommy Sheppard in Edinburgh East and Musselburgh.

Former Daily Record journalist Torcuil Crichton won Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) for Labour, while the party also made gains in Alloa and Grangemouth, Stirling and Strathallan and three Fife constituencies.

SNP deputy Westminster leader Kirsten Oswald was ousted in East Renfrewshire by Blair McDougall – the former head strategist of the Better Together campaign for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

Stephen Flynn, the party's Westminster leader, clung on to his Aberdeen South seat but told BBC Scotland it was a “very difficult and bleak night” for the SNP and that the party had to learn from it.

“There’s the Starmer tsunami, the fact that people want change in Downing Street and we’ve undoubtedly been squeezed in that context,” he added.

Former first minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon told ITV: “This is not a good night for the SNP on these numbers and there will be a lot of questions that need to be asked as we come out of it.”

Alex Salmond, who preceded Ms Sturgeon as SNP leader and first minister, said the "slaughter of the SNP" was not due to its support for Scottish independence.

He added: "How could it be? The SNP did not even campaign on it."

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said he was confident his party would win a majority in Scotland.

“This is a changed Scottish Labour Party and tomorrow that work for change begins," he told BBC Scotland News.

His party is aiming for a major revival, having won just one seat at the last general election in 2019.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross described it as a “historically bad night” for the Tories.

“There is no shying away from that at all and there will be a huge amount of reflection on the campaign and also clearly the last few years,” he told BBC Scotland News.

“It has been particularly difficult and there is no denying that.”

He went on to lose his own election race to the SNP, receiving 32.8% of the vote compared to the SNP who won 35.2%. Reform collected 14.6%.

Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Conservative leader, told Sky News it was a "massacre” for the Tories.

However, she said earlier internal Tory figures had predicted an even worse result.

The Conservatives, who fell behind Reform UK in several Scottish seats, have kept four seats north of the border.

The Lib Dems have so far returned four MPs here.

Former leader Jo Swinson said the party was set to become a “substantial force again”.