Thursday was “not a good night for the SNP”, Nicola Sturgeon has said, as a party source claimed it would lose its MPs in Edinburgh .
The BBC /ITV/Sky survey was published as polls closed at 10pm, predicting a 170-seat majority for Labour across the UK.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party’s success appears to have extended north of the border, with the SNP set to lose 38 seats compared with the 2019 election.
This is not a good night for the SNP on these numbers
Nicola Sturgeon, former first minister
A party source told the PA news agency there was an expectation the three seats held by the SNP in the Scottish capital would be lost to Labour, meaning Joanna Cherry KC – one of the country’s most prominent MPs – would not be returned.
The news comes after First Minister John Swinney said in May he was “confident” of holding the constituencies in Edinburgh.
Speaking on ITV, Ms Sturgeon reacted minutes after the exit poll was revealed, she said: “This is not a good night for the SNP on these numbers.
“I think there will be a question about whether there was enough in the campaign to give out, effectively, a USP to the SNP in an election that was about getting the Tories out and replacing them with Labour.”
She added: “This is at the grimmer end of the expectations for the SNP if the exit poll is right and, from what I’ve said earlier on, I expect it will be.
“This is seismic for Labour. There’s no getting away from that, it’s a massive achievement for Keir Starmer.”
The first result in Scotland is expected to be Rutherglen, which could declare at 1am.
The SNP’s campaign centred around calls for talks on another independence referendum if the party won a majority of seats at the election.
Despite the exit poll result, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes told the BBC: “I would strongly caution anybody against dismissing the robust, resilient and significant number of people in this country that support independence and the next Labour government will have to contend with that, we’ll have to listen to Scottish voters because even over the last few months – which have been difficult – that support for independence has remained strong.”
But she added the party would need to “listen to the voices of voters” and “set out our agenda to regain and rebuild the trust of the voters across Scotland”, she said.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross told the BBC the exit poll predicts a “historically bad” result for the Tories across the UK.
He said he does not regret his last-minute decision to stand in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, but predicted an “extremely close” result.
Speaking from the Aberdeen count, he said: “It is a historically bad night, there is no shying away from that at all and there will be a huge amount of reflection on the campaign and also clearly the last few years.
“It has been particularly difficult and there’s no denying that and whoever forms the next parliamentary party will look at the options going forward and will assess the current state of play in the Conservative party and how it rebuilds after this election result.”
He said he does not regret his last-minute decision to stand but predicted an “extremely close” result.
The exit poll predictions signal voters had a “desperate need for change”, a Scottish Labour MSP has said. Glasgow MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy said the exit poll predicted a “strong” result for Labour.
She told PA: “It was a strong exit poll. I think that the country has been saying for some time now that they’re fed up of the 14 years of Tory chaos.”
She added: “There’s really been a desperate need for change and we’ve ran a really strong, positive campaign and I’m so proud of it.”
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said the exit poll was a “hopeful” sign for his party at a UK level where it predicted two Green MPs.
Speaking to PA from the Glasgow count, he said any gain from the one English seat the Greens won at the 2019 general election would be “something to celebrate”.
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