Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Professor John Curtice: SNP could “have a fight on their hands” to hold on to north-east seats

Moray candidate Angus Robertson
Moray candidate Angus Robertson

The SNP could “have a fight on their hands” to hold on to key north-east constituencies at next month’s General Election, a leading politics expert has warned.

John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University and one of the most respected figures in analysing Scottish election results, said the party could struggle significantly more in the region than elsewhere.

Writing in the Scotsman newspaper, he said: “While the party’s vote was up on 2012 in much of the West of Scotland, including by eight points in Glasgow, it was sharply down in many of its traditional strongholds in the north-east.

“And it was in the north-east where the Conservatives – whose tally was up by 12 points across Scotland as a whole, enough to put them five points ahead of Labour – registered their biggest advances.

“So even if the SNP’s vote is largely holding up in most of Scotland, the local results do give reason to believe it is not doing so 
in the north-east – and that as a result senior 
SNP MPs such as Angus Roberton in Moray and Pete Wishart in Perth have a fight on their hands.”

Professor Curtice’s assessment comes after it was revealed this week that the Scottish Greens will withstand from fielding a candidate against Mr Robertson, leading to accusations they are trying to “prop up” the SNP.

Local Greens convener, James Mackessack-Leitch, who fought the 2015 Westminster election on behalf of the party, said that he was taking a stand against next month’s UK Government vote – by not standing.

Tory hopeful, Douglas Ross, responded the Greens’ stance was “an attempt to bolster the SNP vote”.

He said: “This decision by the Moray Greens smacks of desperation; they will do anything to prop up the SNP and hang on to their shirt tails.

“People will find it hard to believe them when they say they won’t be backing any particular candidate.

“When it comes down to it, they will be backing the SNP all the way as we see time and again in parliament.”

Moray MP, Angus Robertson, welcomed the Greens’ announcement, saying: “This outlines the election as a two horse race between the SNP and the Tories.

“We will try hard to win the trust of Green voters, because it is a straight choice between me and the Tories.”

Labour candidate, Jo Kirby, announced that she would stand in the June 8 election last week.