Douglas Ross’s Conservatives have been punished by voters over Downing Street parties and the cost-of-living crisis, as the SNP surged to victory in local authorities across Tayside and Fife.
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon hailed a “best ever” national result for her party as it returned a total of 453 councillors – an increase of 22.
Her party now makes up the largest group on every council across Courier Country, including a remarkable majority on Dundee City Council using a voting system specifically designed to prevent them.
It also made significant gains on Perth and Kinross Council, as well as Angus and Fife.
But it was Mr Ross’s Scottish Conservatives who became the biggest story of the day as they haemorrhaged 63 councillors across Scotland.
Sending a message over partygate
He has faced criticism for backtracking on his call for Boris Johnson to quit over lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.
Asked whether he believes Mr Johnson is still the right person to lead the Conservatives into the next general election following the result, Mr Ross said the prime minister “can’t ignore the message” sent by voters.
The Scottish Tory leader said he was confident his candidates could maintain their grip on key strongholds in the run-up to the election.
But he admitted partygate “dominated” discussions on the doorsteps.
“It’s been a difficult night and some of the results coming in are very disappointing,” Mr Ross said.
“It seems supporters decided to sit this one out to protest, and not cast their vote, and we’ve lost out as a result of that.
“It was certainly the partygate issue that dominated the discussions I had with voters that were reluctant to come out and support us as they have in the past.
“The prime minister simply can’t ignore the message that is being sent here from voters, not just in Scotland but from across the UK.
“There’s been a very strong message from the public to the prime minister.”
Blame Boris?
The Tory backlash was also aimed at the prime minister in England where his party suffered a string of losses.
Mr Johnson admitted it had been a “tough night” as the Conservatives lost more than 300 councillors, Labour strengthened its grip on London and the Liberal Democrats made gains in Tory heartlands.
But he insisted that he would not be deflected from the task of dealing with the “economic aftershocks” of Covid, despite renewed calls from some Tories for him to stand down.
In Scotland, one of the most bitter losses for the Conservatives was Perth and Kinross, an area the SNP strongly targeted in the lead-up the election.
SNP leader hails ‘resounding’ win
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon hailed a “resounding victory” for her party and said the result should be a cost-of-living “wake-up call” for the Tories.
The SNP recorded its highest vote share and its largest number of elected councillors on its way to becoming the biggest party in 21 of the country’s 32 councils.
Ms Sturgeon said: “While this result is yet another resounding endorsement of the SNP – and for pro-independence parties – it has yet again confirmed that Scotland utterly rejects the corruption, sleaze and law-breaking of the Tories.
“Meanwhile, Anas Sarwar and Douglas Ross are reduced to slugging it out for second place like two bald men fighting over a comb.
“In this election, I asked the people of Scotland to vote for the SNP to send an unequivocal message to Boris Johnson that he must do more to help families suffering from this crippling cost-of-living crisis his party created.
“The people of Scotland responded – and then some – as shown by the utter collapse of the Tory vote. They lost more than 100,000 votes in what must be a wake-up call for Westminster Tories.
“And Scots Tory leader Douglas Ross must also shoulder a substantial share of blame for this disaster after defending his law-breaking boss in spite of justified public fury over partygate.”
Sarwar ready to compete
It was, however, a more positive picture for Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar as his party leapfrogged the Tories into second place.
He claimed a surge in support for the Scottish Conservatives under former leader Ruth Davidson is now “dead”.
“For well over a decade now, we’ve had a politics in Scotland where there’s been one dominant party,” Mr Sarwar said.
“And there’s been a Labour party that’s been not on the pitch, not been willing to compete, and a Conservative party whose limited ambition has been to come in second place.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton hailed what he described as the beginning of a revival for his party after winning 87 seats – up 20 from 2017.
The Lib Dems won the popular vote in Fife, increasing their number of local councillors from seven to 13.
The Greens also had reasons to celebrate after almost doubling their total number of councillors across Scotland to 35.
Embarrassment for Alba
But Alex Salmond’s Alba Party endured an embarrassing collapse after failing to win a single seat for the second election in a row.
The party put up 111 candidates – a number of whom were elected as SNP councillors in 2017 before defecting to Mr Salmond’s party when it launched last year.
Among those to lose their seat was Chris McEleny, the party’s general secretary, and Dundee councillor Alan Ross.
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