Holyrood Election 2026: The count begins…

The SNP’s Alan Brown wins with 11,919 with Scottish Labour’s Ewan MacPhee coming second with 7,458.

The Shetland Islands is won by the SNP’s Hannah Goodlad with 5,453 votes. Scottish Lib Dem Emma Macdonald is second with 3,936 votes.

The SNP hold Aberdeen central with its candidate Jack Middleton securing 11,974 votes. Second place is Scottish Labour’s Jenny Laing with 5,002 votes.

The Labour candidate in Orkney seemed oddly familiar…

And fans of Last of the Summer Wine would no doubt agree that there was certainly a look of ‘Compo’ about him!

The Scottish Greens seem confident of success in Glasgow.

Sources say they are doing well in both Glasgow Kelvin and Maryhill and Glasgow Southside.

The party’s candidates Iris Duane and Holly Bruce are all smiles as they are greeted by former party leader Patrick Harvie at the vote at the Glasgow International Arena.

Returning MSP Liam McArthur is asked if the Scottish Lib Dems would be willing to help form a government with the SNP given the Nationalists look like they won’t get a majority.

He replies: ‘I think I’d have reservations about any formal coalition and [leader] Alex Cole Hamilton has made clear his reservations about such an arrangement.’

Reservations don’t necessarily mean it couldn’t happen. Time will tell.

The SNP have taken Dundee City West with Heather Anderson securing 12,722 votes. It’s double the 6,365 votes secured by Scottish Labour’s Michael Marra.

Turnout there was 46 per cent.

From Deputy Political Editor Tom Gordon…

Tories think they could fall from 3 MSPs to one on Edinburgh regional list.

Miles Briggs back safely but Sue Webber at risk. Could come down to battle for list votes with Greens and some very tight arithmetic.

SNP look to have held Edinburgh South Western (formerly Pentlands).

The SNP’s Stephen Flynn has just arrived at the north-east count where he was greeted with hugs from activists.

The Westminster leader is hoping to secure the Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine seat at Holyrood having been voted to represent Aberdeen South in the last general election.

And asked how he as feeling about today’s result, which is expected sometime this afternoon, he said: ‘Always confident’.

Mr McArthur secured 7,221 votes to win Orkney – representing a 70.2 per cent share of the votes.

The number of votes secured by Mr McArthur is up by almost 8 per cent on his previous election performance there and dwarfs the 1,661 votes secured by the SNP candidate Robert Leslie, who came second.

When asked if he thinks he’s won because he got his message out when others perhaps didn’t, he replies: ‘I’ve been very active over the last six weeks as part of the campaign but I think as an incumbent you win or lose by and large by what you do between elections not just in the election campaign itself.’

SNP Inverclyde incumbent Stuart McMillan said Reform UK may have a ‘positive’ impact on the Scottish parliament.

The Greenock and Inverclyde MSP said:

It was always going to be the case that Reform were going to make some headway in this election. They will then have to have some type of impact into the Scottish parliament. Time will tell whether that’s positive or negative.

Mr McMillan told PA Media he was confident he would beat Lord Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, who is standing for the Inverclyde seat.

He said: ‘I’m not going to count my chickens in any way, shape or form.

‘From what we’ve seen so far, it’s positive, but we’ve got a long, long way to go.

‘I do believe I can win this seat, absolutely.’

Asked about Reform UK’s performance south of the Border, Mr McMillan said: ‘I don’t focus on any other party.

‘We have fought a very positive, very strong campaign.

‘It’s clear there is a change taking place in England.

‘I certainly hope that change doesn’t happen in Scotland.

‘As an SNP member, I don’t want us to send people to Westminster anyway.’

Mr McMillan said he also backed overnight counts – so that candidates have only ‘one sleepless night, not two’.