SNP take Falkirk East as Labour come second

Victory for Angus MacDonald as Callum Laidlaw, left, and Craig Martin look on
Picture: Michael Gillen — Victory for Angus MacDonald as Callum Laidlaw, left, and Craig Martin look on Picture: Michael Gillen

Angus MacDonald retained his seat with 16720 votes – 51.3 per cent of the votes. The turnout was 54.14 per cent – a 6.74 per cent from 2011.

Craig R Martin came second with 8408 votes, while Conservative candidate Callum Laidlaw was third with 6324 and Scottish Lib Dem James Munro was last with 1054 votes.

In victory Mr MacDonald said: “It’s been a fantastic night for the SNP in Falkirk East, in Falkirk District as a whole and it looks like we are going to have a tremendous result across the whole country for a historic third term of SNP government.

“It was surprising that the Tories have made such a strong showing, but they did run a very clever campaign. The turnout is an increase on 2011 and that’s encouraging.

“I would imagine that’s a knock-on effect of the referendum and the way people became engaged in that.”