The Conservatives have denied Nicola Sturgeon another majority in the Scottish parliament and pushed Labour into third place for the first time. Ruth Davidson, the Tory leader, fulfilled her pledge to lead the opposition at Holyrood with seats to spare in a result described by David Cameron as historic.
Ms Davidson immediately went on the attack, warning Ms Sturgeon to drop any plans for a second independence referendum. “Whatever claims the SNP were pursuing with regard to constitutional brinkmanship over the next five years have now been utterly shredded,” she said.
The SNP finished with 63 seats, two short of a majority. The Tories won 31 and Scottish Labour managed only 24, down from the 37 in the last parliament.
Kezia Dugdale, who has been Labour leader for less than a year, said she was heartbroken and took full responsibility for the result — but would not resign.
As Labour activists in Scotland were coming to terms with the party’s worst performance for 60 years, Ms Dugdale refused to blame Jeremy Corbyn. Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, said however that voters did not see Labour under Mr Corbyn as a “credible party of future government” and urged the party to reflect on the rout.
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Mr Corbyn conceded that there was “a lot of building to do” in Scotland. “We are going to be with you,” he told Scottish Labour. “We’re going to walk hand in hand with the party in Scotland to build that support once again, so the Labour tradition in Scotland will be re-established.”
Although the SNP trounced the other parties it did not live up to the predictions of the polls. Ms Sturgeon had been expected to reproduce Alex Salmond’s 2011 coup and win a majority through a system of voting designed to prevent such a result.
The Tory surge, with increased support for the Scottish Greens on the regional vote, left her disappointed. She said that she would seek to lead a minority government and eschew formal deals with opposition parties.
Her speech outside Bute House, her official residence in Edinburgh, was muted with none of the selfie-taking fans who had swarmed around her at every appearance on the campaign trail.
Her message was defiant, however. Calling the result “emphatic”, she said: “We won a clear and unequivocal mandate. And I secured the personal mandate I sought to implement the bold and ambitious programme for government that I asked the country to vote on.”
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Ms Sturgeon had made that personal endorsement central to her campaign, and that it has not been as full-throated as it might have been will sting.
The first minister said that her new government would be inclusive and would “govern with conviction and determination but also with humility and a willingness to listen and to learn”.
Analysis
Ken MacIntosh’s face as he learnt not only that he had lost Eastwood but that his party had been pushed into third place said it all (Magnus Linklater writes).
Thomas Docherty, the former MP, called Labour’s performance “self-immolation for dummies”. Kezia Dugdale’s decision to take the party to the left of the SNP had been self-defeating, he said.
The voters it was trying to seduce were Yes voters, who were not inclined to revert to a party that had campaigned against independence, and No voters were put off by Ms Dugdale’s fatally blurred signals.
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Labour’s years in power had done little, so far as Scots could see, to improve education, health or welfare. And it was still seen as tied to its masters in London.
Then over the hill came the Scottish Tories, led by the charismatic Ruth Davidson and offering strong opposition and a “detoxified” party, free of its old Thatcher connections. Once again, the headlights glared, and once again, the Labour rabbit sat frozen. This time, it was run over.