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Labour celebrates huge gains on ‘historic day’ for Scotland – BBC News

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Labour celebrates huge gains on ‘historic day’ for Scotland – BBC News

Image caption, Anas Sarwar celebrated victory in Glasgow surrounded by new Scottish Labour MPs

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has celebrated dramatic election gains in Scotland on what he called a “historic day”.

The party has so far won 37 seats – a gain of 36 – with one seat still to be declared due to a recount.

The SNP has nine seats and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats each has five.

Mr Sarwar said the new Labour MPs were going to sit on government benches and “make decisions for the people of Scotland”.

He said: “This is a historic day for Scotland and for the entire UK.

“People are waking up to the news that after 14 years of Conservative government, after 14 years of chaos and division, it has come to an end and Scotland and the UK has elected a Labour government.”

Scottish Labour took a 37.5% share of the vote in Scotland, a 17% increase, with 412 seats overall across the UK.

The party made gains across the central belt, with most of its results following swings of about 20% from the SNP.

Other big wins came in Edinburgh, Fife and Tayside.

In the 2019 general election Labour returned just one MP to the SNP’s 48.

Speaking on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow, surrounded by new MPs, Mr Sarwar said people in Scotland had put their “faith and trust” in the party.

He said: “For far too long, they have looked at our politics here in Scotland and across the UK and thought that politics could not work for them, that somehow all they could ever get was governments that care about themselves, not about public service; politicians who would always put their party before the country.

“The people you see around me today, these new Scottish Labour MPs – and aren’t there so many of them? – they are not going to Westminster to sit on the opposition benches, to shout, to protest, and ultimately come back with nothing.

“They are going to sit on the government benches, to sit round the table and make decisions for the people of Scotland. That is the change that people have voted for.”

Mr Sarwar also set his sights on the next Scottish Parliament election in 2026.

He added: “Yes we ended 14 years of Tory chaos, but there has been 17 years of SNP incompetence too.

“So today we start the hard work of change with a UK government delivering for the people of Scotland, but we also redouble our efforts to we together can deliver change in 2026 with a Scottish Labour government too.”

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