Brutal second Labour candidate slaps down SNP politician’s exit ballot excuse

Labour’s Shadow Scotland Secretary has brutally slapped down an SNP politician after he scrambled to make excuses for his party’s dismal exit poll projections.

Ian Murray put down Angus Robertson, the MSP for Edinburgh Central, after he claimed the Tories were to blame for projections showing the SNP will be reduced to just 10 seats. Labour are predicted to secure a huge majority of 170, with 410 seats, according to the exit poll. The Conservatives are set to be reduced to just 131 MPs, their lowest number since the party was founded in 1832.

Mr Murray, who is the Scottish Labour candidate for Edinburgh South, hit back after the former SNP Westminster leader said his party was set to be knocked down because the “public has just been so sick of Conservative UK Governments”.

But Mr Murray responded saying it was not just about the Tories but it was about the SNP’s failures too. “I think it’s really important, particularly for viewers across the whole of the UK, to realise people in Scotland weren’t just demanding change, they were demanding change from 14 years of the Tories and 17 years of the SNP,” he said.

“It was about the NHS and the huge waiting lists in Scotland. It was about the state of the Scottish economy, yes a lot of that was to blame on the Tories and 14 years of incompetence and chaos in Westminster but 17 years of failure in Scotland.”

After hearing the SNP could lose 38 seats compared to the 2019 election, Mr Robertson said: “Well obviously I’m disappointed… I think it’s in line with recent polls over recent weeks that were predicting a Labour victory both at a UK level as well as in Scotland.”

Pressed whether the dismal projection’s for his party represent the failure of the SNP, he said: “If it was as simple as the SNP would be getting nearly 50% of the vote. It’s not the way Scottish politics works. This was a UK election where people had the opportunity of kicking out Rishi Sunak, getting rid of the Boris Johnson nightmare, getting rid of the Liz Truss government and the record of total Tory incompetence.

“I think that the change message chimed. We know that is a very powerful message and I think voters in Scotland decided in a UK election to vote to change a UK government and the Labour party managed to land that they were the principal vehicle to do that.”

The first result in Scotland is expected to be Rutherglen, which could declare at 1am. Former first minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said she believed the results of the exit poll would turn out to be “broadly right”.

“This is at the grimmer end of the expectations for the SNP if the exit poll is right,” she 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.”