Mhairi Black SOURCE: Twitter
A 20-year-old politics student has made history by ousting the shadow foreign secretary in a SNP landslide that saw the party take all but three of Scotland’s parliamentary seats.
Mhairi Black beat Douglas Alexander, a Labour stalwart, by more than 6,000 votes, and becomes the youngest MP in over 300 years.
Her party made history on Thursday night when they took half of all votes cast in the country, and ousted several other major politicians including Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy, and chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander.
Record swings saw Nicola Sturgeon’s party take every single seat they could, with the exception of Edinburgh South, Orkney and Shetland, and Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale.
Former SNP leader Alex Salmond said there had been an “electoral tsunami” upon his victory in the constituency of Gordon.
He added: “There’s going to be a lion roaring tonight, a Scottish lion, and it’s going to roar with a voice that no government of whatever political complexion is going to be able to ignore.”
The outlook was good for the SNP upon the release of the nation’s exit poll, which predicted they would take all but one seat, and as the results started coming in, it was victory after victory for the nationalists.
Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander was one of the first to fall, losing out to Mhairi who only joined the SNP after last year’s referendum.
Upon her victory, she said: “Whether you voted for the SNP or not, and whatever your views are on Scotland’s future, I will seek to represent you and everyone in this constituency to the very best of my ability.
“This election is about making the voice of this constituency and the whole of Scotland heard more effectively at Westminster than ever before.”
As the night progressed, the picture for Labour became increasingly depressing, with Ian Murray being the only survivor for the party.
Jim Murphy, after finding out he was no longer an MP, said: “Tonight, Scotland has lost so many great members of parliament from all across the country and I’d like to pay tribute to each and every one of them
“This is of course an enormous moment for the SNP and no one can deny, and I congratulate them more widely on their success this evening.
“With a victory on this scale there also comes a responsibility: no one of course should ever confuse nationalism with our country, no one should ever mistake their party for our country, because our history, our streets, our flag have never and will never belong to one political party or one political cause.”
The vote share in Scotland SOURCE: TNU
The Lib Dems also kept just one seat, that of former secretary of state for Scotland Alistair Carmichael. Former leader Charles Kennedy was not reelected, and neither was Danny Alexander.
As for the Conservatives, their sole MP David Mundell also kept his place, and his party came in an extremely close run off in Berwickshire, but ultimately lost out to the SNP. It would seem extremely likely that Mundell will now become secretary of state for Scotland.
It is less easy to predict what will happen in the Labour shadow cabinet, given that they lost a number of bigfigures, including Douglas Alexander, but also their shadow chancellor Ed Balls south of the border, and their leader Ed Miliband.
There are also now questions over the leadership of the party in Scotland, and whether the unelected Murphy can keep his place at the top of Scottish Labour.
For more coverage, see our election in stats, resignations, calls for proportional representation and our countdown of the biggest Scottish scalps.
The New Union 
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