Scottish National Party’s ‘damaging’ U.K. election result hits independence push

The Scottish National Party was set for its worst showing at a British parliamentary election since 2010, projections showed, derailing their push for a new independence referendum as a resurgent Labour Party made gains in former heartlands.

The pro-separatist Scottish National Party was virtually obliterated at the U.K. General Election on July 5, suffering a devastating blow to its withering independence movement.

Keir Starmer’s Labour party overturned more than a decade of SNP domination by storming to a majority of Scotland’s 57 seats, as it rode to power in Westminster.

The SNP lost dozens of lawmakers as it recorded its worst result in a British general election since 2010, with leader John Swinney lamenting a “very, very difficult and damaging” night for his party.

Mr. Swinney had targeted winning 29 seats as a mandate for reopening negotiations with the British government for another independence referendum, but it returned only nine MPs, with one result still to declare.

That was down from the 48 it won at the last election in 2019.

Labour returned just one Scottish Labour MP last time round but sealed its comeback in its former heartland by sweeping every Glasgow seat as well as numerous others in Scotland’s central belt.

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