Tory landslide in Aberdeenshire West – as Alexander Burnett says residents ‘saw through Reform’
Reform's Jo Hart came third in the race for Holyrood, but says it was down to "clever leafletting" and tactical voting in the area.
Alexander Burnett secured a landslide victory in Aberdeenshire West, but it’s the only constituency vote the Conservatives have won across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
Mr Burnett was first elected to Holyrood back in 2016 and was re-elected in 2021 beating the SNP’s Fergus Mutch.
And now, he will remain for another term having secured victory over four other candidates.
He got a total of 15,897 people to back him, beating the SNP’s Fatima Joji by 5,783.
But this is the only constituency the Tories secured in the race for Scottish Parliament out of the six across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
And he’s one of only a handful of Conservatives across Scotland to top the polls.
Conservative pledges to keep standing up for Aberdeenshire
Talking to the Press and Journal after the announcement, he said it was a “huge privilege and an honour” to secure the majority once more.
“I think my team and I have worked hard for constituents on local issues,” he said.
“We’ve stood up for the north-east, we’ve stood up for Aberdeenshire, we’ve stood up for our rural communities…
“And I think the voters have seen that, and I will continue to do that in the next parliament.”
Jo Hart, standing for Reform, secured 5,467 votes. Nigel Farage’s party has become a topic of conversation for splitting votes across the north-east.
Mr Burnett said people across Aberdeenshire West were “scathing” about Reform and “saw through them”.
He added: “They see that they are not interested in helping Scotland move forward.
“They’ve proved that tonight by splitting the vote again, allowing the SNP to win on a lower vote share across the seats.”
Before he can celebrate his victory, Mr Burnett tells us he’s off to set up the car park for the Deeside Rugby Club tomorrow morning.
Reform missed out due to ‘tactical voting’
This was Jo Hart’s first time joining the race for the Scottish Parliament, though she previously stood for Reform in the Westminster election.
The former nurse and midwife said while “it would have been nice to have got a slightly higher vote” it was a “hard constituency” to campaign in and she was proud of what she’d achieved.
“We came in to disrupt,” she told The P&J after the results.
“And we’re only two years in, I keep saying what Reform has achieved in two years and I think we’re shaking things up a little bit.”
The candidate said there was “clever leafletting” from the Tories in the last week and “a lot of tactical voting”.
“Just vote from the heart,” she said. “Vote for what you want, not what you don’t want.”
But, Ms Hart doesn’t think her views on the monarchy swayed the vote in any way, saying she didn’t “get any of that on the doorstep” when campaigning in a part of the country famed for its royal links and Balmoral Castle.
She previously faced scorn for past social media comments attacking the Royal Family, describing them as “benefit scroungers”.
But for now, she’s already looking ahead to council elections and is hopeful that the next results will be different.
SNP say plan is to ‘keep serving’ consituency
And it was also Ms Joji’s first time running in the Scottish elections.
The councillor for Westhill and District came in second with 10,114 votes, and said she was “really honoured” to have such strong support.
“It’s not something I’ll take for granted,” she said before adding: “And you won’t see the end of me.
“I do a lot in my community already and the plan is to keep serving it.”
[Source: Press and Journal]
