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.

Willie Rennie pays tribute to defeated Alison McInnes

Willie Rennie
Willie Rennie

The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has paid tribute to former North East MSP Alison McInnes.

Willie Rennie said Ms McInnes, who was first elected in 2007, was an “outstanding member” of the Scottish Parliament.

Ms McInnes was number two on the party’s list in the North East region at the Scottish election – but only the party’s number one candidate, Mike Rumbles, was elected.

She was one of two high-profile causalities in an otherwise successful night for the Liberal Democrats, along with Jim Hume who lost in the South of Scotland.

Mr Rennie, who confounded pollsters to soar to victory in the North East Fife constituency contest, said: “It is disappointing to lose people.

“I think, even more than the disappointment to me, the disappointment is to the north-east and the south of Scotland who have lost two brilliant champions.

“I think they’ll be poorer places because of it.

“I think Alison was an outstanding member of the Scottish Parliament.

“I would’ve loved to have doubled our vote up there to get Alison back in and I wish they had done that.

“But I think they will see that the parliament won’t be as strong because Alison is not there and perhaps next time round they will put her back in.”

Despite losing Ms McInnes, who was the party’s justice spokeswoman, Mr Rennie was upbeat about the election.

He said: “I’m not going to deny I’m delighted with the overall result – it is brilliant.

“We are back on track. We’ve turned a corner – there is no doubt about it.

“Nobody predicted that we, of all the parties, would win constituencies – not just one, but two. And nobody predicted that Liam McArthur and Tavish Scott were going to win in the (northern isles) with 67% of the vote.

“You would have been laughed at if you’d suggested that during the election.”