Ian Blackford: 'Scotland will become an independent member of the European Union'
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The SNP’s Ian Blackford has claimed that the election was all “about saving Scotland” as he retained his seat in parliament with a thumping majority of 9443.
Mr Blackford enjoyed an eight per cent swing bringing his total to 19,263 – the next placed candidate was the Liberal Democrats Craig Harrow with 9820.
Behind him was the Conservative’s Gavin Berkenhager with 6900 and Labour’s John Erskine who got 2448.
Kate Brownlie from the Brexit Party got 710, Donald Boyd from the Scottish Christian Party got 460 and finally Richard Lucas from the Scottish Family Party received 268 votes.
Mr Blackford will now return to Westminster with his eyes fixed squarely on securing a second independence referendum.
He said: “For me it is an enormous privilege to be a member of parliament for the largest and most beautiful constituency in Scotland of Ross, Skye and Lochaber.
“This has been a stunning night for the Scottish National Party. Based on a platform of protecting Scotland from Brexit, we need to make it very clear to the people that a vote for the SNP is about our electoral right to choose.
“Let me tell Boris Johnson that the Scottish National Party have won this election for Scotland – Boris Johnson had nothing to offer the people of Scotland and he has lost more than half his MPs. We will be back to work later today.
“And now we say this to Boris Johnson, there is a referendum bill going through the Scottish Parliament, we will be demanding that democracy takes place, we are simply not prepared to see Scotland taken out of the European Union against its will.
“We are not prepared to see the devastation of our communities, the loss of rights we have as EU citizens – we will have our referendum and I ask all people throughout Scotland to engage with the debate about the vision we have.
“This election was about saving Scotland, we will save Scotland, we will have a referendum and Scotland will become an independent member of the European Union.”
