Labour ‘surprised’ by general election gains in Scotland.

Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson has said the party was “surprised” by its success in Scotland in the general election.

Labour north of the border had been all but wiped out in the 2015 Westminster vote, going from 41 seats to just one, as a rampant SNP all but swept the board.

With the party still trailing behind the SNP and the Tories in the run up to June’s snap general election, there was speculation Labour could struggle to make any gains.

However, the party won seven seats – retaining Edinburgh South and picking up six others from the SNP.

Mr Watson said: “Frankly we were surprised at the results in Scotland.”

The Labour deputy, speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, said however that “we shouldn’t have been because I was up campaigning in the local elections in May, I was on the doorsteps in Glasgow and people were beginning to tell me their views on the health service, the education system – obviously after 10 years in government the SNP are failing in the delivery of those public services”.

While Labour came second to the Conservatives across the UK in June, Jeremy Corbyn’s number two insisted the party had “confounded the critics”.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Watson said: “W e were supposed to be annihilated by now, many people said we would be in civil war, that Jeremy wouldn’t be leader, that I wouldn’t be deputy leader.

“And we came out of that with 40% of the popular vote, having made electoral gains in Scotland, England and other parts of nations, and the party needs to celebrate that.”

Labour is now aiming to win back seats from the Scottish nationalists, he said, stating: ” If we’re targeting those seats it is because generally they are former Labour seats and we would like to re-engage voters there and win their confidence back.”

He also insisted that Labour’s leadership was opposed to the prospect of any deal with the SNP – despite veteran MEP David Martin suggesting the groundwork should be laid for a possible coalition between the rival parties at Holyrood

Mr Martin said while the prospect may seem ”unthinkable” to many, signs of increasing co-operation between the two parties had been growing, and suggested moves to recognise common ground were necessary now in case the 2 021 Scottish elections fail to give either party a majority.

But Mr Watson said: ” I’ve never talked about doing deals with the SNP.”

He added: “Some of our colleagues still do, but that’s certainly not the leader and deputy leader that say that.”

By Press Association.

Culled from Press and Journal.