Alex Salmond has laid into the SNP under Nicola Sturgeon's leadership (Image: Getty/TalkTV)
Alex Salmond has torn into Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP after a devastating exit poll for the Scottish Nationalists. The BBC/ITV/Sky survey published as polls closed at 10pm on Thursday showed the party could drop to as few as 10 seats.
The exit poll suggested the SNP could lose 38 seats compared to the 2019 election. Mr Salmond, who used to lead the SNP but now leads the Alba Party, told TalkTV the result is "devastating" for his former party.
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He said: "It's the slaugher of the innocents. It's a devastating reversal for the SNP. It's not to do with independence. There's plenty of London commentators crowing tonight we've seen the back of independence. But just to give you an example, when I won a landslide for the SNP in 2011 independence support was about 30 percent. Now independence support is 50 percent and the SNP are getting a complete drubbing.
"Well the only worse government I can think of in living memory than the SNP in Scotland over the last three or four years is the Tories at Westminster. The pair of them have been competing to be the two worst governments in history and they've both paid a heavy price."
Asked what went wrong under the SNP's leadership, Mr Salmond said: "People are asking the questions tonight is it about police investigations... and all the rest of it, but no. What it's about is the kamikaze policy of self-identification. The ludicrous idea that anybody can nominate their sex at a whim, which of course came to its disgraceful denouement when they couldn't explain why a male rapist should be put into a female prison.
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"I mean this sort of stuff doesn't go down well with anybody. I mean the number of people that support that nonsense in Scotland is in single figures."
READ MORE Reform UK wreaks devastation on Tory voter share in hammer blow to Rishi Sunak
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Alex Salmond slammed the SNP (Image: Getty)
Isla Bryson was convicted of rape in January 2023. The trans woman raped two women before changing gender and was locked up in a women's prison before she was moved to a male jail. It came after the Scottish Parliament passed legislation to make it easier for people to change their legally-recognised sex.
The Gender Recognition Reform Bill was blocked by the UK Government over concerns of its impact on equalities laws which apply to England, Scotland and Wales.
He pointed to the botched bottle return scheme, scandal over unbuilt ferries and hundreds of millions of pounds of waste. Mr Salmond added: "The SNP built their position not just on the cause of independence but on competence in government.
Mr Salmond said: "They've underpinned one of the key pillars [competence in government]."
Nicola Sturgeon told ITV Thursday is "not a good night for the SNP". She said: "I think there will be a question about whether there was enough in the campaign to give out, effectively, a USP to the SNP in an election that was about getting the Tories out and replacing them with Labour."
Ms Sturgeon added: "This is at the grimmer end of the expectations for the SNP if the exit poll is right and, from what I've said earlier on, I expect it will be.
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Election result live Labour wins majority
New result: Basildon South and East Thurrock？Reformgain +++ Basildon South and East Thurrock？Reformgain
650/ 650 results in
？ Labour 412
？ Conservative 121
？ Lib Dem 72
？ SNP 9
？ Reform 5
？ Green 4
？ Other 27
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"This is seismic for Labour. There's no getting away from that, it's a massive achievement for Keir Starmer.
"I think it will be interesting as the night progresses to see the extent this is driven by the Tory collapse as opposed to a Labour surge."
The SNP's campaign centred around calls for talks on another independence referendum if the party won a majority of seats at the election.
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But despite the exit poll result, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes told the BBC: "I would strongly caution anybody against dismissing the robust, resilient and significant number of people in this country that support independence and the next Labour government will have to contend with that.
"We'll have to listen to Scottish voters because even over the last few months - which have been difficult - that support for independence has remained strong."
But she added the party would need to "listen to the voices of voters".
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