The Scottish National Party (SNP) has won its fifth consecutive Scottish parliament election, but failed to reach a majority in Holyrood.
John Swinney’s party took 58 seats, falling short of the 65 needed to win an overall majority, but are by far the largest party in Scottish parliament.
Labour and Reform UK both emerged with 17 seats, while the Scottish Greens won 15.
It was a poor night for the Conservatives, who lost their position as the parliament’s largest opposition party, suffering their worst-ever Holyrood election result to finish with 12 seats.
The Scottish Lib Dems finished the night with ten seats.
Speaking on Friday night, Mr Swinney declared the SNP had “emphatically” won the election
He also put pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, saying the prime minister has a “lot of listening to do”, and called for respect between the two governments.
“I hope that lesson is learned in Downing Street that there’s now got to be respect for the Scottish government exercised by the UK government,” he said.
“My message to Downing Street tonight is very, very clear – they have got a lot of listening to do to the fact that Labour have been hammered here in Scotland and an SNP Government, after 19 years in office, has just been emphatically returned to office, and Scotland needs respect as a consequence of that election outcome.”
The count held a number of surprises as sitting SNP minister Angus Robertson lost his Edinburgh Central seat after being ousted by the Scottish Greens, which also took took a seat from the SNP in Glasgow Southside.
Here’s an overview of the results in Scotland:
The results were “disappointing and difficult” for the Scottish Labour Party, Anas Sarwar said on Friday.
“We made the case for change, but sadly that was not an argument we won in the face of a national wave that we couldn’t overcome,” the Scottish Labour leader said.
“I want to thank everyone who voted for us – we will continue to fight for you, for communities across Scotland and for the values we believe in.”
Sggesting that he has no plan to resign, Sarwar added: “The Scottish Labour Party is hurting today. It is my job to hold our party together. That’s what I will do.”
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Reform UK celebrated an historic night in Scotland after they gained 17 seats to match Labour’s total.
The Greens also nearly doubled their total from eight to 15.
In England, results made difficult reading for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party, who have lost more than 1,400 councillors.
The party has also suffered huge losses in Wales, securing just nine seats.
Sir Keir insisted he would carry on in his post despite the disastrous losses.
He acknowledged it had been a “tough” night for Labour but said that “days like this don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised”.
Reform UK made gains across the country as hundreds of Labour councillors were voted out, heaping pressure on the prime minister.
Mr Farage said the results showed a “truly historic shift in British politics” away from the old era of Labour and Conservative domination, vowing “the best is yet to come” for his party.
