Joanna Cherry loses seat as SNP suffers Edinburgh defeats

The SNP’s Joanna Cherry has blamed former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for their party’s heavy general election losses.

Ms Cherry lost the battle for Edinburgh South West by 6,217 votes to Labour,

She said the SNP had lost its reputation for competent government and failed to progress the case for independence.

Ms Cherry, who has had public run-ins with the party leadership over her views on gender reform, also accused Ms Sturgeon of putting identity politics over real policy.

Labour celebrated big wins across Edinburgh after taking back three seats held by the SNP since 2015.

Other SNP MPs to be ousted in the capital were Tommy Sheppard – who was hoping to be re-elected for a fourth term – and Deidre Brock.

Labour’s Ian Murray comfortably held his Edinburgh South seat saying in his acceptance speech:  “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”

He said: “I think it’s about time the SNP listened to the people of Scotland, they’ve lost heavily tonight, it looks like they’ve lost all over Scotland and I think it’s really time now to reflect.”

Christine Jardine held Edinburgh West for the Liberal Democrats.

Meanwhile, former Labour cabinet minister Douglas Alexander is returning to Westminster, having won in Lothian East.

He took the seat from the SNP, winning 49% of the vote to their 21.4%.