DESPITE Boris Johnson securing a landslide victory for the Conservatives, things did not go to plan for the Scottish Tories on election night.
The party lost seven of its seats as the map turned yellow in Scotland.
The SNP won 48 seats out of 59 – but suspended SNP candidate Neale Hanvey will become an independent MP after winning in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.
Scots voted for the pro-EU SNP, but are to be ruled by a Tory government hellbent on a hard Brexit.
Surely reasonable onlookers would conclude that the mandate for indyref2 has been strengthened.
Step forward, the Scottish Tories.
READ MORE: SNP win election and strengthen indyref2 mandate
According to them, the SNP do not in fact have good cause for pushing for a second plebiscite … because they did not secure more than 50% of the popular vote.
That argument comes unstuck, however, when it is applied to Boris Johnson’s government and its mandate to push through the PM’s Brexit deal.
Tory MSP Dean Lockhart was taught that lesson live on air by STV’s Bernard Ponsonby.
🔥 Bernard Ponsonby eviscerates Scottish Tory's anti-democratic argument on Scottish independence.
— The SNP (@theSNP) December 13, 2019
💻 Fact check: SNP have won a higher percentage of the vote in Scotland than the Tories won UK-wide, and won 8 times the Tories number of seats in Scotland. pic.twitter.com/CItUD9NUPf
And as it turns out, the SNP actually won a higher vote share in Scotland than the Tories did in the UK as a whole.
— Andrew Wilson (@AndrewWilson) December 13, 2019
The Scottish Tories are fooling no-one with their election spin.
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