CRAIG Murray received almost 20 per cent of the votes in the SNP election for the post of party president  - according to a breakdown of the first round in the ballot obtained by The National.

However, in the second head to head round of the ballot after rival Corri Wilson was eliminated he received 25% of the votes.

The former diplomat lost out to Constitutional Affairs Secretary Michael Russell for the top position, traditionally an honorary role with the party's constitution stating that it is a position elected for distinguished service to the party and not an executive post.

Russell is due to stand down as an MSP ahead of the 2021 Holyrood election.

He served as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning from 2009 to 2014 in Alex Salmond's governments and has been in his current Cabinet role in Nicola Sturgeon's government since 2018.

The full breakdown of the votes obtained by The National states that Russell received 1463 votes, Murray 421, and former MP Corri Wilson 239. This ballot return said Russell got 68.91%, Murray 19.83% and Wilson 11.25%.

Russell succeeds Ian Hudghton, a former MEP, who has been SNP president since 2005.

Hudghton's predecessor was former MP and MEP Winnie Ewing.
Her election victory in 1967 was a significant by-election in Scottish political history and began a surge of support for the SNP.

She is known for saying "stop the world, Scotland wants to get on" when elected to Westminster in 1967 and at the European Parliament became known as "Madame Ecosse". Ewing was the SNP President from 1987 to 2005.

Asked about the 20% figure as he spoke to The National Murray said: "The results are presented with tallies and surplus in a confusing way."