UNIONIST tactical voting saw the Conservatives, Labour and the LibDems all hold onto seats being challenged by the SNP as voters backed the party they believed had the highest chance of defeating Nicola Sturgeon’s party.

Former Tory leader Jackson Carlaw was re-elected in Eastwood after Labour’s vote slumped by a massive 15% from 2016. Carlaw received 17,911 votes beating the SNP’s Colm Merrick who netted15,695. Labour got just 6759, taking third place.

In the SNP target seats of Edinburgh Western and Edinburgh Southern unionist supporting voters also swung behind what they regarded as the strongest pro-UK party in the area.

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Tactical voting saw support for LibDem Alex Cole-Hamilton rise to 25,578 votes – a 13% rise on his 2016 result.

The SNP’s Sarah Masson received 15,693 votes while Labour netted just 2515 and the Tories 2798 – with falls of 4% and 8% respectively. Turnout was a massive 71.5%.

In Edinburgh Southern – another key target seat for the SNP – Labour’s Daniel Johnson was returned to Holyrood.

Johnson was elected with 20,760, a 10% increase on his 2016 result.

The SNP’s Catriona MacDonald took 16,738 votes, increasing the party’s vote share by 4%.

However, the Tory candidate Miles Briggs saw his vote share tumble by 14.5% while the LibDems also fell by a percentage.

The results also suggest significant tactical voting in North East Fife. LibDem leader Willie Rennie took 22,163 with 55% of the vote – up 11% on 2016.

Rhuaraidh Fleming for the SNP came second on 14,715 – up 3% on the last election, while the Labour and the Tories saw falls of 3% and 10%.

Senior Tory Murdo Fraser said: “The result in North East Fife and Edinburgh West is really interesting– clearly there is Unionist tactical voting going on.

“Big drops in the Conservative vote in both North East fife and Edinburgh West and big transfers to the LibDems.”

Ailsa Henderson, professor of political science at the University of Edinburgh, noted the high degree of tactical voting in Edinburgh.

She said: “This has always been a region of highly mobile and highly tactical voters.

“You can see that in both the results of Edinburgh Western where the enhanced result for the Liberal Democrats comes as a result of a collapse in the result of the Conservative and Labour vote with those voters swinging in behind the LibDem candidate.

“You can also see signs of this in Edinburgh Southern.”

Professor Nicola McEwan, co-director of the Centre on Constitutional Change in Edinburgh, agreed with Henderson on the scale of tactical voting.

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Discussing the result in Eastwood, she said: “What I find really fascinating in this constituency is that clearly the collapse of the Labour vote suggests that some of those voters may have switched allegiance to the Conservative party despite the fact there is a Conservative government at Westminster with a Prime Minister one imagines may not be popular among Labour voters in Scotland.

“It suggests Scottish issues, the constitutional debate in particular, is determining how people vote in this election and that is fascinating.”

Polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice said that the SNP have so far won half of the six marginal seats the party would need to take from opposition parties in order to win a majority, assuming it does not lose any seats of its own.

He added there were clear signs of tactical voting from pro-UK voters in several areas.