THE SNP suffered a startling blow as Labour recaptured their former stronghold Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath by just a few hundred votes.

Roger Mullin was ousted from his seat by former Fife Council deputy leader Lesley Laird as Labour recorded a shock 259 vote majority.

Mrs Laird secured 17,016 votes to reclaim the constituency that Mr Mullin was elected to serve in 2015.

The voter turnout was down to 63.6% from 69.6% in 2015.

The history of the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath seat was not lost on its new MP, with Mrs Laird paying tribute to Gordon Brown in her acceptance speech, stating: “Gordon Brown, this is for you!”

Following her win, Mrs Laird spoke to the Times and expressed her excitement at the outcome.

She said: “I’m absolutely delighted. We’ve worked really hard over the past few weeks.

“We were getting some really positive signs that it could be coming our way, but it’s been on a knife-edge the whole way through.

“I’m so pleased to now be able to cross the finishing line and regain this seat for Labour.

“We were talking about the issues that really mattered to people. People were fed up of talking about Brexit or Independence.

“They just want people to be dealing with the issues that are important; jobs, education and investment.

“Those are certainly the areas I will be focusing on and those will be the priorities in this area.”

Declaring that the “hard work starts now”, she is now eager to get underway.

“I’m really looking forward to getting started and also building the trust and confidence of those who perhaps didn’t vote for me as well.

“We need to start building for the future and building for the constituency.

“It’ll take time to think about, and we need to make sure we get it right.”

Her counterpart, Roger Mullin, was disappointed not to have been re-elected, but he praised his staff for their efforts as he reflected on his time as MP.

He said: “I feel for my staff who done a remarkable job for the constituents.

“My responsibility now is to do everything I can to secure their futures as they’re very talented.

“It was a great honour serving this constituency and I enjoyed doing it.

“We will now see what the future holds!

“In the immediate future, I’m going home as it was my wife’s birthday yesterday and I’ll be having a nice glass of wine with her.”

The voting also showed a sizeable increase in Conservative support, with Dave Dempsey earning 10,762 votes – a 23.3% share.

He said: “I’m dead chuffed. If you had told me in April that we would have 23.3% of the votes, I would have been surprised. But, after the council elections, nothing was going to be a surprise.

“We didn’t hammer this Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath seat like there was no tomorrow, but Lesley did.

“We haven’t seen her. We haven’t seen Councillor Laird for ages. She’s missed everything.

“She can now absolutely justify missing everything.

“We’re in the same ward together. I know her well. Good luck to her.”

The Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath results:

Labour, Lesley Laird: 17,016
SNP, Roger Mullin: 16,757
Conservative, Dave Dempsey: 10,762
Lib Dem, Malcolm Wood: 1,118
UKIP, David Coburn: 540