SNP heads for historic victory in Scotland

Scottish nationalists are cruising to a sensational victory over Labour in the elections to Scotland’s devolved parliament, thanks mainly to a collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote.
The latest figures put the Scottish National party on 49 MSPs compared with 23 for Labour, suggesting the SNP could achieve the 65 seats neccessary for outright control of Holyrood.
The SNP has made historic advances into the central belt of Scotland, capturing seats in Labour heartlands such as Lanarkshire and Glasgow, unseating several of Labour’s most senior politicians.
Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, described the results as a historic watershed, and promised to proceed with a referendum on independence in his second term of government.
“In this parliament we will bring forward a referendum and trust the people with Scotland’s own constitutional future,” he said.
The Conservatives have so far won only seven seats, the Liberal Democrats two and the Greens one, though the opposition parties will hope to make up some ground when regional seats are allocated on a proportional basis, which tends to balance out the constituency results.
Labour’s share of the vote dropped only slightly. But Labour is being routed by the SNP because of its failure to benefit from the collapse in support for the Liberal Democrats, who appear to be suffering from their controversial decision to join the Conservatives in the coalition government at Westminster after last year’s general election.
The Lib Dems’ share of the constituency vote fell from 14.6 to 7 per cent, while at regional level their support slumped from 8.8 to 3 per cent.