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Western Isles MP congratulates ‘son of Lewis’ Donald Trump – but yearns for Harris

Torcuil Crichton noted Trump’s ancestral roots as Scots wake to the shock US election result.

Tycoon Donald Trump at the house in Tong, on the Isle of Lewis, where Donald Trump's mother was brought up. Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire
Tycoon Donald Trump at the house in Tong, on the Isle of Lewis, where Donald Trump's mother was brought up. Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

The MP for the Western Isles reflected on his shared Lewis roots with Donald Trump, while wishing he’d “woken today in the Isle of Harris”.

Torcuil Crichton’s quip drew on island rivalry, and a coincidental surname, on the day Trump claimed victory in the US presidential election.

Mr Crichton had hoped Kamala Harris would beat the comeback politician, who frequently draws on his mother’s Lewis birthplace.

“Congratulations to another son of Lewis, though I’ve never wished more to have woken today in the Isle of Harris,” the MP wrote on social media.

Western Isles Labour MP Torcuil Crichton.

It followed Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s own congratulations to the returning president.

First Minister John Swinney also quickly appeared to change his tone in a warm message this morning.

The SNP leader had been embroiled in a row with Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf course bosses for endorsing Kamala Harris just last week.

He said it wasn’t just because Mr Trump opposed Scottish independence.

‘Appalling’

Today, Mr Swinney added: “Scotland and the USA share many social, cultural and economic links.

“In that relationship, we will stand fast in support of our values of fairness, democracy and equality – ideals that America was built upon.”

Commenters under the message on social media were not happy.

One reminded him that Trump International Scotland vice president Sarah Malone had claimed Mr Swinney had “insulted” Trump, who she said employs around 600 people in Scotland.

Read more: 5 times Donald Trump locked horns with SNP leaders, from Aberdeenshire golf to ‘blasphemy’

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