ANGUS Robertson has been elected the SNP’s deputy leader with an emphatic mandate.
The Moray MP, who is already SNP group leader at Westminster, was victorious on the first round of voting with a 52.5 per cent share of the ballot of party members.
His closest rival was MP Tommy Sheppard, who secured 25.5 per cent, followed by MEP Alyn Smith (18.6 per cent) and Inverclyde councillor Chris McEleny (3.4 per cent).
Read more: Hard Brexit is not a game changer for SNP, new poll suggests
The result of the depute leadership contest was the first item of business on the first day of the SNP conference in Glasgow on Thursday.
Addressing delegates at the Clyde Auditorium after the declaration, Mr Robertson said he would deliver on his campaign themes: leadership, the party grassroots and independence.
He said: “We are very, very close to independence and we must start campaigning now to persuade people. Forty-five per cent in the independence referendum was a great achievement but we must reach out to the 55 per cent who voted No in the 2014 campaign.”
Read more: Hard Brexit is not a game changer for SNP, new poll suggests
He said it was fitting that the SNP was now led by an urban MSP in Nicola Sturgeon in Holyrood with a rural MP in Westminster as her deputy.
“We are the Scottish National party. We represent the whole of the country, regardless of where you come from and we should never forget that.”
He said he wanted to work with his rivals - on Mr Sheppard’s plans for internal reform, Mr Smith’s focus on Europe, and Mr McEleny’s prioritisation of the 2017 council elections.
He also thanked his wife Jennifer Dempsie for helping with his campaign.
Nicola Sturgeon said Mr Robertson would be an “outstanding” deputy.
She said: “We had four first class candidates to choose from. We had more quality in our race for deputy than Labour managed in its election for leader.”
Read more: Hard Brexit is not a game changer for SNP, new poll suggests
Mr Robertson replaces Stewart Hosie, who resigned from the depute leadership post in the spring after it was revealed he had been having an affair with former actress Serena Cowdry.
Mr Hosie also split from his wife, the health secretary Shona Robison, at the time.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel