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election night bright and early on Friday morning.
Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson has lost her seat of East Dunbartonshire by fewer than 150 votes, with her decision to back Boris Johnson’s bid for a general election backfiring spectacularly.
She won 19,523 votes, coming an extremely close second to the SNP’s Amy Callaghan on 19,672. Swinson had boasted in the campaign that she would become the UK’s next prime minister.
Turnout was 80%.
Swinson had been leader since July, the party’s first female premier. Perhaps ironically, securing the backing of the Lib Dems and the SNP had been crucial for
Boris Johnson in getting the general election voted through the Commons.
Addressing her supporters at the count, Swinson said: “For millions of people in our country, these results will bring dread and dismay, and people are looking for hope. I still believe that we as a country can be warm and generous, inclusive and open, and that by working together with out nearest neighbours we can achieve so much more.”
The MP has lost East Dunbartonshire once before: in 2015, again to the SNP. She won it back in 2017.
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