Moray local election results in full: Conservatives gain three seats while SNP lose one

By Ewan Malcolm

- ewan.malcolm@hnmedia.co.uk

Published: 17:23, 06 May 2022

| Updated: 16:21, 07 May 2022

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Moray Conservative Group...Moray Council Local Election May 2022...Picture: Becky Saunderson..

THE Conservatives gained three seats in Moray while the SNP lost one in today's local council election.

The Tories are now the largest party in Moray Council with 11 councillors, while the SNP have eight.

The Tory gain in Moray is one of the few positives for the party after they lost 63 seats nationwide today.

Moray's Conservative MP Douglas Ross said: "We've elected more Scottish Conservative councillors than ever before in Moray.

"We have gone forward and the SNP have gone backwards – losing a seat.

"There's no doubt the SNP minority administration has lost the right to run Moray Council."

Graham Leadbitter (SNP), former council leader, said: "We have massively closed the gap on the Conservatives.

"The Conservatives were 1000 votes ahead of us in the last election in Moray and they're now about 100 ahead. So that's a big increase in our vote.

"We will be having tough conversations with other parties and trying to form an administration. Our aim is to form a stable administration to take the council forward."

Moray MSP Richard Lochhead (SNP) said: "Locally, the SNP has a team of eight talented councillors ready to serve Moray including some new faces that were elected with very impressive levels of support but I am sorry we lost Dave Bremner a valued colleague."

He added: "It's now down to the negotiations between the parties to decide who runs the next Moray Council and I wish to congratulate all the new councillors elected and everyone who voted in this election."

Elsewhere in Moray, Labour had three councillors (up two from 2017) elected, while the Greens and Lib Dems, having had no councillors previously, got one each.

The Green councillor (Draeyk Van der Horn, Forres) is the first ever from the party to be elected in Moray.