Stihler secures seat as SNP's vote share rises

Peter Swindon 1601 - 1601 • Published 8 Jun 2009 11:35 1 Comment

Fife-based Labour MEP Catherine Stihler has held her seat as the SNP secured the largest share of the European election vote in Scotland for the first time.

The Nationalists" vote share was up 10 per cent to 29.1%. Labour polled 20.8% of votes while the Tories took 16.8% and the Lib Dems 11.5%.

Mrs Stihler, who lives in Dunfermline and shares an office with MSP Helen Eadie, is one of two Labour MEPs in Scotland, joining David Martin, two SNP MEPs, one Lib Dem and one Tory.

Speaking to the Times after the declaration in Edinburgh, she said, 'It"s a real honour and privilege to be back. I"m just delighted to be given the opportunity to serve for another five years.

'The priority now must be jobs and the economy. Gordon Brown has already put things in place in terms of trying to grow us out of the recession and that will feed through. We now have to build on that.'

Labour polled 229,853 votes in Scotland, almost 100,000 less than the SNP (321,007). The result has been hailed as 'historic' by First Minister Alex Salmond.

Mrs Stihler puts the shift down to a lack of public trust in Westminster politicians.

'MP"s expenses dominated the campaign,' she said. 'A lot of Labour people didn"t go out and vote across Scotland. I"m pleased to see that wasn"t the case in Fife, however we do need to rebuild public trust and the Labour government is in the process of reforming the system.'

Labour polled 21,248 votes in the Kingdom, the highest of twelve parties fielding candidates. The SNP came a close second with 21,043 votes.

The Liberal Democrats polled 10,613 votes while the Conservatives took 10,110.

The fifth, sixth and seventh placed parties in Fife were the Greens, UKIP and the Scottish Socialists with 4,625, 4,520 and 2,059 votes respectively.

The BNP, which returned two MEPs in England, polled highest among fringe parties with 1,728 votes.

Just 28.6 per cent of an electorate of 278,380 voted - a total of 79,239.

The rise of the BNP has been partly blamed on a low turnout across the country.

Mrs Stihler vowed to fight back. She said, 'The fact that two fascists were elected leaves us facing a challenge and we intend to expose them.'

The remaining votes in Fife went to the Christian Party (834); independent candidate, Duncan Robertson (825); No2EU: Yes to Democracy (597); Jury Team (450); and the Socialist Labour Party (259). 322 ballots were rejected.

Across Scotland, the Conservatives attracted 185,794 votes, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 127,038, the Greens with 80,442 and UKIP with 57,788.

The BNP polled 27,174 votes, leading the fringe parties.

The remaining votes went to the Socialist Labour Party (22,135); the Christian Party (16,738); the SSP (10,404); Duncan Robertson (10,189); No2EU: Yes to Democracy (9693); and the Jury Team (6257). 4490 ballots were rejected.

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• 

  John
  Unregistered User
  Jun 9, 14:27
  Report comment

  Who cares? Politicians have done nothing except fill their own pockets with our money. This re elected numpty will be no different. Never heard of Stihler and probably never will.
  
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