Boris Johnson has set himself on course for a constitutional clash with Nicola Sturgeon if she pushes ahead with plans for a second Scottish independence referendum - which the PM has called irresponsible and reckless .
Counting continues in the Scottish parliamentary contest, with the SNP leader s hopes of achieving a majority on a knife edge, after a poll predicted the party could miss out by just one seat.
But it is still highly likely the SNP will win its fourth term in power at Holyrood, and Ms Sturgeon said when the time is right she will offer Scots the choice of a better future in a second independence referendum.
Nicola Sturgeon keeps her Glasgow seat but admits an SNP majority is a very, very, long shot amid poll claims that her party could miss out by ONE seat in blow to independence hopes - as early votes suggest a swing to unionist parties
Polls suggest the SNP could fall short of a majority by the tiniest of margins
Sturgeon wants a mandate to hold a new independence referendum
Having to govern with an SNP/Green coalition would weaken her position
SNP and Joe FitzPatrick increase majority as they hold Dundee City West
Updated: May 7, 2021, 8:23 pm
Joe FitzPatrick has been elected as the MSP for Dundee City West.
FitzPatrick has previously held two terms as the Dundee City West MSP after winning the seat in 2007.
He was elected with a 19,818 votes – a four per cent increase from 2016 – and a 13,000-seat majority.
‘Hugely honoured’
FitzPatrick – public health minister until 2020 before resigning after Scotland recorded record drug deaths – said it is “a huge privilege” to have been re-elected.
He told us: “I’m hugely honoured that the people not only voted for me in huge numbers, in spite of what was a bit of a rubbish day – bits of sunshine, bits of rain – but people came out and voted.