Victory in Aberdeen West where the Royals holiday at Balmoral stops SNP majority
In the face of a Nationalist tsunami sweeping Scotland, one tiny pocket of the nation managed to thwart the SNP’s bid to seal an overall majority and put a dent in its bid for separation. Aberdeenshire West – the constituency that takes in the Queen’s Highland home of Balmoral – had been a key target for Nicola Sturgeon and a win would have given her a firm moral mandate to hold a repeat of the 2014 independence referendum. But voters just outside the Granite City threw their weight behind the union with the SNP kept at bay in second place by the Conservative incumbent, Alexander Burn...