How election night 2010 unfolded across Tayside and Fife.
04.37: And with that, we bid you good night. We’re away to fill in our expenses.
04.33: Crushing defeat for former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. She loses her Redditch seat to the Conservatives.
03.58: Important count to share from the online team: cups of tea 2, cups of coffee 0. A landslide for the tea party.
03.36: All that anyone can say with any certaintly right now is that it’s a night of mixed results. Remarkable contrast in Labour’s fortunes north and south of the border.
03.21: The BBC put it to David Miliband tipped as the likeliest successor to Gordon Brown should he stand down as Labour leader that talks between Labour and the Liberal Democrats have already started. He says he has “absolutely no idea”.
03.02: Gordon Brown heading to the airport for his journey to London. Penny for his thoughts.
02.47: Another high-profile casualty. The Lib Dems’ Lembit Opik has lost his Montgomeryshire seat to the Conservatives.
02.38: Things getting busy here. Just to confirm, the SNP’s Pete Wishart has held Perth & North Perthshire.
02.35: Returning officers are blaming the long queues and turning away of voters on students. When in doubt…
02.11: Some much-needed cheer for the SNP. Stewart Hosie holds Dundee East.
02.05: Steve Bargeton’s view at 2am: a very good night north of the border for Labour. Very bad so far for SNP. And here’s more evidence: Margaret Curran takes Glasgow East from SNP by-election winner John Mason. Huge result for Labour.
02.00: Confirmation from Dunfermline & West Fife: Labour’s Thomas Dochertyclaims the seat from the Lib Dems’ Willie Rennie. Proof, says Docherty, that Gordon Brown is “Fife’s favourite son”.
01.56: Mike Weir holds Angus for the SNP.
01.55: More from Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath. Defending a majority of over 18,000, there was never any danger of an upset in the traditional Labour seat and Gordon Brown in fact increased his lead to over 24,000, write Bruce Fegen and Aileen Robertson.
It was always going to be a case of who came second and the honours went to the SNP’s Douglas Chapman, who was comfortably ahead of John Mainland (Lib Dem), who just edged out Tory Lindsay Paterson.
Mr Brown had left it late before arriving at the count centre, arriving at 12.20am with wife Sarah.
He had a quick word with supporters there was as kiss on the cheek for local Labour MSP Marilyn Livingstone before heading for a private area to await the result which came at 1.35am.
01.50: Labour hold Kilmarnock & Loudon and East Lothian.
01.48: Lindsay Roy holds Glenrothes for Labour. And there’s a 6% swing from SNP to Labour. Very bad half hour or so for SNP.
01.46: Sir Menzies Campbell holds North East Fife for the Lib Dems. A majority of 9048 there.
01.43: Confirmation from Dundee West. It’s a Labour hold for Jim McGovern. Big blow for SNP.
01.38: +++BREAKING NEWS+++ Gordon Brown is still an MP! As will be a surprise to no-one, he holds in Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath with a huge majority.
In a personal speech he stresses his ties to the area and calls it a “great privilege to serve”.
But no sign that he expects to win this election or remain prime minister. BBC’s Nick Robinson says Brown’s eyes “spoke of defeat”.
01.28: More interesting rumours. We’re hearing SNP will hold Dundee East, Angus and Tory target Perth & North Perthshire. But no clean sweep in Dundee. Labour look like holding Dundee West.
01.24: Remember when Willie Rennie won the 2006 by-election in Dunfermline & West Fife for the Lib Dems in 2006? We’re getting strong hints that he won’t have such a good night tonight.
01.08: The first Scottish result is in. Labour hold Rutherglen & Hamilton West.
01.01: The Conservatives have just made their first gain from Labour in Kingswood. It’s a swing of 9.4%. If this was to be replicated across the country, there’s no hung parliament. Conservatives win.
00.59: Voter turnout in Dundee is up, write Brian Allison and Graeme Strachan.
Figures have just been announced by returning officer David Dorward at the Dundee International Sports Complex after a verification count to establish the total number of votes cast.
There were 37,202 votes cast in Dundee West a turnout of 59.04%. That’s up almost 3% from 2005.
The number of votes also increased in Dundee East, with 40,640 votes cast.
That is up 1100 on 2005 from 39,540, but turnout was down from 62.43% in 2005 to 62.07%, because of a change in the number of electors.
We’ll bring you the actual result when we get it.
00.55: Peter Robinson says he “would have preferred not to stand” in this election. Quite.
00.51: Alistair McGowan amusing the nation on the BBC with his impersonations of leading political figures. The fact he has to tell us who he’s impersonating hints at a slight weakness in his act.
00.47: +++GENUINE UPSET ALERT +++. Peter Robinson the DUP leader and First Minister of Northern Ireland has lost in Belfast East!
00.32: It’s gone very quiet just at the moment. So we’re going to work on a Biffy Clyro review in the meantime. How’s THAT for multitasking?
00.28: The Prime Minister set off from North Queensferry for his count at the Adam Smith College in Kirkcaldy shortly after midnight.
00.08: Candidates hoping to take the North East Fife seat are still waiting anxiously for counters to finish sifting through ballot papers, writes Cheryl Wood.
Indications are that turnout at polling stations is up on 2005 when 62.1 per cent of the constituency’s electorate voted.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell’s team are confident the result will mark the beginning of his sixth term as the constituency’s MP.
Hoping to wrench that position from him were the Conservatives’ Miles Briggs, Labour candidate Mark Hood, Rod Campbell of the SNP and Mike Scott-Hayward, representing UKIP.
23.58: Oooh. This is interesting. Steve Bargeton is hearing rumours of an upset in Dunfermline. Result expected in about half an hour.
23.42: Tea will have to wait. Three out of three for Labour in the Sunderland area, having now also won Sunderland Central. All three go to women MPs. Lab-Con swing much lower here at 4.1%. Not a good sign for the Tories.
23.37: We asked our political editor Steve Bargeton for his take on the results so far. His view: the exit poll looks wrong. The swing is bigger. It’s 11.30. Sounds like time for a cup of tea.
23.26: It’s two out of two so far for Labour. They’ve just taken Washington & Sunderland West with a massive majority.
Neither of the results so far would be classed as great political upsets.
However, the swing from Labour to the Conservatives is 11% higher than that estimated by the exit poll.
Interesting night ahead…
23.22: Early indications are that Angus will be the close fight predicted, writes Graham Brown.
It is one of the Conservatives’ top targets and lawyer Alberto Costa needs a swing of just over 2% to wrest the seat from the SNP’s Michael Weir, who has represented the county at Westminster since 2001.
Mr Weir’s majority last time round was 1601 and there was plenty of early interest from both the main parties as the first ballot boxes arrived for counting at Arbroath’s Saltire centre just after 10pm.
23.14: Reports of would-be voters down south being turned away at the polls because of long queues at 10pm. Let us know in the comments below if you had any difficulties.
23.10: Counting is well under way in Gordon Brown’s constituency of Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath within just a few minutes of polls closing, write Bruce Fegen and Aileen Robertson.
Defending a massive majority of more than 18,000 from 2005, Mr Brown is unlikely to face too many problems in being returned for another term, but if he did need an omen, then there was surely none better than the choice of location where the votes were counted.
Amid tight security and a media circus, the count was taking place at the Adam Smith College in Kirkcaldy where he is the Chancellor!
23.07: David Wardle wins our ‘first live photo of the night’ award. He’s just sent us this of the ballot boxes arriving in Dunfermline:
22.52: Labour have won the first seat to declare in Houghton and Sunderland South.
22.49: The result in Perth and North Perthshire appears to be on a knife-edge, with a result predicted for 2.30am, writes Eric Nicolson.
As expected, the constituency has boiled down to a two-way fight between the SNP and the Tories.
Both candidates, Pete Wishart and Peter Lyburn, were confident of victory as they arrived at Bell’s Sports Centre in Perth for the count.
Mr Wishart is defending a majority of just over 1500 but the Conservative Party have made no secret that Perth and North Perthshire is at the top of their list of Scottish targets.
Boundary changes mean this is only the second time this particular seat has been contested, but an SNP victory would be a personal hat-trick for Mr Wishart who has served the people of Perthshire (for one term as MP for North Tayside) for nine years.
The word from polling stations point to a good turnout and it is expected to be in excess of 2005’s total number of voters of 45,930.
22.43: Arnold Schwarzenegger has reportedly phoned David Cameron to congratulate him on his win. He must know something no one else does.
22.33: The Fife Institute of Sport is buzzing as the count for the Glenrothes constituency gets under way, writes Jonathan Watson.
The smart money is on Labour candidate Lindsay Roy retaining his seat having originally taken over the constituency in his by-election victory of 2008.
Despite poor weather earlier in the day reports from polling stations suggested a strong turnout traditionally a good sign for the Labour Party.
The SNP’s Dave Alexander is expected to be Mr Roy’s closest challenger after his party came within 7000 votes of Labour in 2008.
However, the effect of the Prime Ministerial television debates means that the Liberal Democrat’s Harry Wills is expected to build on his party’s previous 2.6% share of the vote.
22.31: Labour and the Lib Dems are facing a tense time as the first of the ballot boxes arrives at the count for the Dunfermline and West Fife constituency, writes Lars Niven.
The seat was sensationally snatched from Labour in an area once regarded as their traditional stronghold by Willie Rennie of the Lib Dems in a by-election in 2006.
Few seem prepared to call tonight’s result, although both parties remained upbeat throughout the campaign about their chances of winning the seat.
The SNP also claimed they were in with a chance of causing an upset.
22.24: Conservatives telling BBC that they believe they could form a working administrations with 307 seats.
22.03: Lord Mandelson suggests that, if the estimates are accurate, Gordon Brown would look to form a government.
22.03: Lord Mandelson tells Radio 4 a hung parliament would represent a huge achievement for Labour.
22.02: The first exit poll suggests a hung parliament. Conservatives estimated to win 307 seats, which would leave them 19 short of a majority. Labour estimated to win 255, Lib Dems 59 and ‘others’ 29. That would also leave Labour and Lib Dems short of being able to form a majority as a coalition.
21.48: There’s more. We’ve just learned David Cameron spent the evening chopping logs at his constituency home.
21.35: Gordon Brown had lamb stew for dinner and went to bed at 8.30pm. Stay tuned for more updates of national significance.
21.15: The Courier has reporters and photographers at the following counts and these are the ones we’ll be covering in detail online tonight:
Dundee EastDundee WestPerth & North PerthshireGlenrothesKirkcaldy & CowdenbeathAngusNorth East FifeDunfermline & West FifeThe Courier is making special publishing arrangements to bring you the latest election news in Friday’s printed editions. Get your copy for the most comprehensive round-up of the results in Scotland and across the UK.