MHAIRI Black has held her Paisley & Renfrewshire South seat despite early anxieties in the SNP camp over a potential Labour surge.
Exit polling gave Black a 46 per cent chance of victory, instead favouring Labour’s candidate Alison Dowling.
However, the MP who became Westminster’s youngest in 2015 was returned with a reduced majority of 2541, with the margin closing by more than 3000 votes.
Black said she was glad to be returned for another five years, and dismissed stories that she had planned to stand down.
“It’s important to say that all of those stories were grossly over-exaggerated – when I signed up to be a representative for this area, I meant it,” she said.
“I’m glad to be re-elected to continue to batter into whoever is in government that austerity is not working it isn’t benefitting people’s lives whatsoever.
“The people it is benefitting are the ones you could argue need it least.”
She was also quick to say the SNP would still back a progressive alliance with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party, a possibility at that time.
Black added: “I think it’s quite a simple question. Quite a lot of the Labour manifesto was almost exactly copied from the SNP’s.
The SNP came first with 16,964 votes, followed by Labour’s Alison Dowling on 14,423. Conservative Amy Thomson polled third with 8122, a significant rise on 2015.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel