THE SNP retained its majority in Scotland’s biggest city last night despite losing one seat as the Unionist vote increased.

Majorities were also squeezed, with some results going to less than 100 votes in the face of a resurgent Labour party and Tory growth.

The SNP entered the contest holding every seat in Glasgow bar the one that had been won by Natalie McGarry.

She finished out her term in Glasgow East as an independent over allegations of financial wrongdoing at organisations she had been involved with, and did not contest the constituency a second time.

Last night that went to east end boy David Linden, who called election by the community he grew up in the “greatest honour”. Despite hard campaigning, he secured the win by just 75 votes.

Alison Thewliss, who has been Linden’s boss since winning her place on Westminster’s green benches in 2015, was the next to be announced at around 3am, triumphing in Glasgow Central, which had the only all-woman candidate list in the UK.

Anne McLaughlin was the SNP’s first Glasgow casualty of the night, losing her 9200 majority as the city’s North East constituency fell to Paul Sweeney of Labour by just a couple of hundred votes.

He said the public had rejected more referenda and been “led back to Labour”, telling reporters: “We have made a great breakthrough.

“So many people are hurting after what is now seven years of a Tory government.”

In the neighbouring North ward, Patrick Grady retained his place by around 1000 votes, with Labour’s Pam Duncan-Glancy pushing her party’s vote share up by around the same amount.

He promised to work “as if we live in the early days of a better nation, because we do”.

Meanwhile, Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie managed just 3250. A party source told The National that Westminster success in the city is “a long term project”.

Referring to the Green Party of England and Wales, he said: “If you look at the progress Caroline Lucas has made, that campaign didn’t begin overnight. She won the seat in 2010, the campaign began in 1997. On that basis, we are hopefully on course.”

Carol Monaghan was successful again in the North West of the city, with Chris Stephens also returned in the South West in close-run competition which saw him hang on to his position by around 60 votes.

Reacting to his triumph in Glasgow South, the SNP’s Stewart McDonald conceded it had been “a mixed bag, even a difficult night” for the party in some areas.

Commenting, Sandra White MSP told The National losses had been unavoidable, given the unprecedented success of 2015.

Attributing the changes to a campaign largely fought on reserved issues by the party’s rivals, she said: “We were starting from the very top. It was a complete tsunami after the Brexit vote. We expected to lose some.

“They have talked on and on about devolved issues and independence. It’s very, very unfair, but then that’s politics.

“Maybe in a way it’s our own fault for not making that clear enough.

“I’d defend the record of the SNP in Holyrood. Maybe we should get a stronger message out there.”

On the national results, former MSP and Glasgow City Council leader Frank McAveety said: “2015 was an incredible result for the SNP. It’s not that they have lost some, it’s the scale of the decline in two years. Ultimately, the SNP need to examine that. They didn’t have a compelling message. They were trying to repeat the message of 2015, but that wasn’t applicable in 2017.

Theresa May hurled her own campaign below the waterline the minute she said she was ‘strong and stable’ then proved to be anything but. The story of tonight is we have had a prime minister putting all her cards on having a bigger majority and failing miserably.

“If the First Minister, after the Brexit vote, had decided to park the debate and talk about getting the best Brexit, she maybe wouldn’t have faced this decline.”

Commenting on the city’s increased Tory vote, city councillor Euan Blockley – the youngest in the country – said: “I only became a Conservative in 2016, I’ve only known the party to be on the upward swing, but it feels good. People aren’t scared to say they are Conservatives any more.”