Conservative Douglas Ross defies exit poll to hold Moray seat
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
CONSERVATIVE candidate Douglas Ross has won the Moray seat at the General Election.
A BBC poll gave Mr Ross at one per cent chance of retaining his seat at 10pm tonight, but he secured it with a majority of 513 votes.
Douglas Ross (Conservative) won with 22,112 votes, Laura Mitchell (SNP) was runner-up with 21,599 votes, Jo Kirby (Labour) finished third with 2432, Fiona Campbell Trevor (Lib Dem) fourth with 2269 and Rob Scorer (UKIP) in last with 413.
The Tories got 45.3 per cent of the vote (-2.2%), SNP 44.3 per cent (+5.5%), Labour 5 per cent (-5.9%), Lib Dem 4.6 per cent (+2.3%) and UKIP 0.8 per cent (+0.8%).
In a speech post-announcement, Mr Ross said: "At the start of this election I was given no chance of retaining this seat and at 10 o'clock tonight when the exit poll was announced I had only gone up to a one per cent chance.
"It was one of the proudest moments of my life to be elected as Moray's MP but to be re-elected is a huge honour and privilege.
Moray's re-elected MP then told the Northern Scot: "I'm elated. It was a lot closer than it was last time.
"When the BBC's exit poll suggested the SNP would get 55 seats in Scotland, I was 100 per cent certain I wouldn't get in.
"Hopefully this is a recognition of the work I have tried to do here over the past two years."
The SNP and Laura Mitchell finished just behind, but closed the gap to the Tories by 7.7 per cent, to just one per cent.
She said: "We always knew it would be a knife edge and result shows how far we pushed the Tories.
"It's just a shame we fell short but overall it has been a fantastic night across the country. 21,000 votes is a fantastic number, but it just wasn;t enough.
"The momentum is with the SNP in Moray – we have slashed the Conservatives lead and we will be working flat out to get this seat back."
The Liberal Democrats and UKIP polled just shy of the five per cent required to take their £500 deposit home, while Labour were just on the mark.
