THE Scottish Conservatives' Murdo Fraser has lost a constituency election to John Swinney for the seventh consecutive time.
Fraser, an MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife in the last parliament, lost the Perthshire North constituency election to SNP leader Swinney on Friday.
The Tory candidate won 10,171 votes to the SNP's 16,414. Reform UK came in third place with 4620, followed by the LibDems on 2741 and then Labour in fifth on 2240.
READ MORE: Scottish election tracker - Maps and charts show Scotland results so far
After his victory, Swinney said: “To the people of Scotland, I express my warmest thanks for their support in this election campaign.
“I will simply do all that I possibly can do to make Scotland a successful country and to improve the lives of the people of our country and I look forward to doing that in the next Scottish Parliamentary term.”
As Fraser is on top of the Mid Scotland and Fife regional list for the Tories, he will likely retain his seat at Holyrood regardless.
Fraser lost to Swinney in the 1999, 2003, and 2007 Scottish Parliament elections for the North Tayside constituency, and the 2011, 2016, and 2021 elections for the Perthshire North constituency.
Since 2001, he has been a regional MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, and served as the Scottish Conservatives’ deputy leader from 2005 to 2011. He also ran for the party leadership in 2011 and 2024, losing to Ruth Davidson and Russell Findlay respectively.
In the UK General Elections, he failed to win the seat for East Lothian in 1997 and the seat for North Tayside in 2001.
Elsewhere, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn also won a seat at Holyrood, as did SNP MP Stephen Gethins, meaning there will be two by-elections to replace them in the London parliament.
SNP minister Jim Fairlie also won his constituency battle in Perthshire South and Kinross-shire.
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