Nicola Sturgeon left speechless as she finds out about SNP wipeout
Following the election exit poll, speculation has erupted about what this means for the future of the party and its independence dreams.
John Swinney reacts to poor SNP results in General Election
Nicola Sturgeon’s ashen-faced reaction to the General Election exit poll was captured on camera, as it was predicted the SNP would win just 10 seats.
Following the 2019 election, the SNP won 48 MPs – but the Scottish nationalists are expected to lose most of them during the course of the night.
Ms Sturgeon, who was appearing on ITV as the exit poll came in, was left speechless as her former party was forecast to win fewer seats than five years ago.
It comes as Labour is predicted to win a massive majority over the Conservative Party after six weeks of election campaigning.
The election results could take Scottish independence “off the immediate agenda” for the incoming government, but it would be “foolish” to think the issue has gone away, Ms Sturgeon has said.
Speaking on ITV, the former first minister said: “A lot of the people – if not the majority of people – who in this election have shifted from the SNP to Labour, they still believe in independence, they haven’t shifted their opinion on independence.
“So it might take the issue off of the immediate agenda for Keir Starmer, but it would be – I think – foolish to suggest that the independence question has gone away.”
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The SNP’s decline since the last election and its predicted poor result in this election – one in which it is forecast to win fewer seats than Reform UK – has triggered a wave of responses about where the party goes from here.
Speaking to the BBC, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said the SNP had to “listen to the voice of the voters”. She said: “We must listen to the voices of the voters, we are democrats, and that means to listen to the message that voters are sending.
“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.”
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On the SNP’s plans for independence, Scottish Tory MSP Murdo Fraser told Sky News that the Scottish people had “made up their minds”.
He said: “We’ve had nearly two decades of SNP domination. It does look like that is now crumbling away and the SNP are looking at their worst election result, maybe for 15 years or more.
“And I think that suggests that people in Scotland are thinking again about their future. Let's remember, of course, John Swinney and the SNP were saying this election would be a de facto referendum on whether Scotland remained part of the UK.
"Well, it looks like people in Scotland have made up their minds on that question."
