SNP beat Labour in Scotland

Updated 21.58 Fri May 04 2007

Keywords: lib dem, conservative, labour

The Scottish National Party is claiming a historic first after winning the most seats in the Scottish Parliament election.

But it remains unclear if Alex Salmond's party will be able to form the next government.

While Prime Minister Tony Blair's party has suffered losses there has been no meltdown in its core vote

The SNP won a total of 47 of the 129 seats up for grabs at Holyrood, with Labour just one behind on 46.

The Conservatives are the third largest party, with 17 MSPs while the Liberal Democrats won 16 seats.

The other smaller parties won just three seats, with the Greens returning two MSPs and independent Margo MacDonald also re-elected.

The results emerged in the early evening after the hotly contested Scottish Parliament elections suffered a night of electoral chaos.

The Electoral Commission confirmed it will hold an inquiry into problems with the new electronic counting system, which resulted in several counts being suspended.

As estimated 100,000 ballot papers were also thrown out across Scotland, because they were classed as spoilt papers.

In addition there were problems with postal ballot papers being delayed while the result of the Western Isles was held up after a helicopter collecting ballot boxes was grounded by fog, forcing officials to use a ferry instead.

The result leaves both the SNP and Labour short of the total of 65 which is needed to have an overall majority in the Parliament.

Meanwhile, Tony Blair has claimed results across the country leave Labour poised to win the next General Election.

His party took a beating - but it was not the catastrophe many had predicted.

He said: "These results provide a perfectly good springboard to go on and win the next General Election."

Liberal Democrats leader Sir Menzies Campbell also faced a very mixed picture - scoring a symbolic coup by taking control in John Prescott's Hull back yard but losing seats and missing out in Woking.

In Wales too, Labour failed to wrest back control of Blaenau Gwent from the widow of rebel former MP Peter Law and lost Llanelli to Plaid Cymru.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain predicted a "difficult" night but First Minister Rhodri Morgan sounded a positive note as he retained his own seat.