Breaking: Maree Todd wins the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross seat for the SNP after fighting off a strong challenge from the Liberal Democrat’s Molly Nolan

The SNP's Maree Todd has won the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross seat for the party in what was a closer contest than anticipated.

Ms Todd fought off a strong challenge from Molly Nolan after the Liberal Democrats made the far north one of their target seats.

Ms Todd polled 15,889 while Ms Nolan took 13,298 votes. They were followed by the Conservative's Struan Mackie with 5170 and Labour's Marion Donaldson who got 2016. The Scottish Libertarian Party and the Freedom Alliance together pooled just more than 500 votes.

Ms Todd, the former Highlands and Islands regional MSP and children's minister, will now be returned to Holyrood to represent the constituency, replacing Gail Ross, who chose to stand down for family reasons.

The far north saw a turnout of 36,993 for the constituency vote which equates to 64.8 per cent of eligible voters.

More to follow...

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