Angus has seen heavy-hitters visit to shore up their candidates’ campaigns. Graeme Strachan explains why.
The two-horse race for Angus was expected to go to the wire, prompting front bench and senior ministers to visit the area in the last few weeks.
Tory, Kirstene Hair and the SNP’s Dave Doogan hosted the likes of Theresa May, Ruth Davidson, Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and John Swinney.
YouGov’s final poll predicted the SNP would regain the seat, lost in 2017 for the first time when Ms Hair removed the party’s chief whip Mike Weir after 16 years.
In its earlier incarnation as Angus South, the seat had been Tory territory, until the SNP’s Andrew Welsh took over when he was elected to Westminster as part of the group of 11 nationalist MPs in 1974.
The seat was then taken back by the Conservatives in 1979 by Peter Fraser before the constituency was abolished in 1983 to make way for Angus East and North Tayside.
The Angus East boundary included Aberbrothock, Arbroath Elliot, Arbroath St Vigeans, Brechin, Carnoustie, Eastern Glens, Montrose Lunan, and Montrose Northesk, and Monifieth and Sidlaw.
North Tayside included Forfar East and Dunnichen, Forfar West and Strathmore, Kirriemuir, and Western Glens.
Mr Welsh took the Angus East constituency back from Mr Fraser in 1987, before his slender majority was cut to just 954 in 1992, which made it the SNP’s shakiest seat.
The Angus constituency was created for the 1997 general election, replacing Angus East, and Mr Welsh took the seat with 20,792, with Sebastian Leslie from the Tories receiving 10,603 votes.
It has remained a two-horse race between the Nationalists and the Tories ever since.
The bookmakers also believed the race for Angus would go right down to the wire ahead of the count.
According to oddschecker.com, the SNP’s Dave Doogan was the favourite at 4/5 with Kirstene Hair at 6/5 to retain her seat.
Prices for the Liberal Democrat candidate Ben Lawrie and Labour’s Monique Miller were both around 100/1.