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Tanks and trucks leave the southern city of Deraa but have been reported elsewhere
Syrian activists are preparing to take to the streets on Friday for what they are calling a “day of defiance”.
Tanks are reported to have withdrawn from the city of Deraa, where a human rights groups says the government has carried out a 10-day “massacre”.
But security forces are reported to have gathered in other urban areas, including the coastal town of Banias.
More than 500 Syrians are thought to have been killed during attempts to quell seven weeks of protests.
At least 2,500 others have been detained as part of a violent crackdown that the US has described as “barbaric”.
‘Total disgust’
In cities across Syria protesters are calling for greater political rights and personal freedoms. Some are calling for the downfall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
People are expected to gather again after prayers on Friday, which have become a regular focal point for protests in the Arab world in 2011.
The unrest in Syria poses the most serious challenge to four decades of rule by the Assad family in one of the Arab world’s most tightly controlled countries.
Foreign journalists are not allowed to enter the country, so it is difficult to verify the reports of deaths.
One doctor, who said he planned to join those demonstrating, said the “indiscriminate killings and inhumane arrests have generated total disgust among the average Syrian”.
“Soldiers with rifles no longer deter people. The propaganda that this regime is the only guarantor of stability no longer washes,” he was quoted as telling Reuters.
‘Preparing to attack’
Military units were reported to be deploying elsewhere on Thursday, including around the coastal town of Banias, home to one of Syria’s two oil refineries.
Four armoured personnel carriers, several tanks and a bus carrying soldiers were seen by one eyewitness quoted by the Associated Press.
Hundreds of families were said to be fleeing the area, fearing that Banias – like the city of Deraa – could come under siege.
“It looks like they are preparing to attack the town, like they did in Deraa,” one activist told the AFP news agency by telephone from the town.
A UN humanitarian team is expected to visit Deraa in the coming days, the organisation’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Thursday, following an appeal to President Bashar al-Assad by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Over the past two days there has also been an increased military presence also in the coastal towns of Homs and Rastan. Troops have also gathered in the Damascus suburbs of Erbin, Saqba, Douma and in the town of Tel, north of the capital.
In Washington, state department spokesman Mark Toner said the US continues to “press Assad’s regime to desist in its violent behaviour”.
“We abhor the violence there,” Mr Toner said. “I think I called it barbaric, the measures that were taken the other day against the citizens of Deraa, and we urge Syria to end these kinds of actions against innocent civilians who are simply expressing their aspirations for a democratic future.”
The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies says snipers and anti-aircraft machine guns were used to fire on unarmed civilians in the southern city and recent amateur video appears to show dozens of unarmed protesters being shot and bleeding to death on the streets.
It has labelled the killings in Deraa a “massacre”.
The government says it is taking action against “elements of terrorist groups… to restore security, peace and stability”.
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First Minister Carwyn Jones and other senior party figures are talking of having a “Labour-led” government in place
Speculation is growing that Labour could seek a deal with another party after falling just short of an absolute majority in the Welsh assembly.
Labour won 30 seats after considerable gains, but needed 31 for a clear lead.
However, senior Labour figures have all referred to their wish for a Labour first minister and a “Labour-led” government in place by next week.
That could mean that Labour may not “go it alone” and instead seek an alliance with another party.
Labour finished on 30 seats, Conservatives 14, Plaid Cymru 11 and Liberal Democrats five.
“If people were unhappy with the Welsh Labour Party then we wouldn’t have done as well as we have”
Carwyn Jones First Minister
Although the Tories had a generally good performance, they suffered the blow of losing their Welsh leader Nick Bourne on the Mid and West Wales regional list. Both Plaid and the Lib Dems had a poor night.
As the last results were declared from north Wales on Friday, three of the most senior figures in Welsh Labour, First Minister Carwyn Jones, campaign director Leighton Andrews, and MP Owen Smith all referred to their desire for a “Labour-led” government.
Education Minister Mr Andrews would not elaborate on why he and the other party figures had used the phrase “Labour-led”, saying only that it “is the phrase that the party is using today” and “you couldn’t get a cigarette paper” between him and Mr Jones on it.
Former Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Mike German said he believed the use of the phrase “Labour-led” indicated to him that there was already forethought from Labour about a coalition deal, and it was his belief that talks could start as early as this weekend.
Carwyn Jones says the results show voters are happy with Labour
Asked what her position was on a deal with Labour, and whether contact had taken place, Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams said: “The ball is certainly in the Labour party’s court – they’ve only been able to get the 30 seats, it must be very disappointing for them.
“As I said at the beginning of this election, our approach, after the people of Wales have spoken, would be to create a stable government here in Wales and to use our influence to push forward the elements of our manifesto that we’ve campaigned on.”
“As I said at the beginning of this election, our approach, after the people of Wales have spoken, would be to create a stable government here in Wales”
Kirsty Williams Welsh Lib Dem leader
Pontypridd MP Owen Smith, asked whether Mr Jones would opt for a coalition deal, said: “I think he’s said very clearly that there is a strong mandate that’s been sent by the people of Wales that they want a Labour-led government, that they want Carwyn Jones as First Minister.
“I think the ball is in our court now, to think about how we want to take that forward, what we want to do with that mandate.
“I think he’s said very clearly that he wants to be open, and to reach out to other parties, and think imaginatively about how we might work with other parties, but precisely what form that will take, precisely how we’ll take that forward, I think you’ll have to wait and see what we determine in the coming days.”
Carwyn Jones said: “The people of Wales have shown that what they want to see is a Labour-led government.
Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams said the party was constantly asked about the UK coalition
“If people were unhappy with the Welsh Labour Party then we wouldn’t have done as well as we have.
“We’ve got five exciting years in government ahead of us.”
Asked by BBC Wales political editor Betsan Powys about the problems in the education system that had already been identified, Mr Jones said Labour knew there were “some parts of the education system that need improvement”.
He also told Jamie Owen on the BBC Wales results programme: “You are right to say that once the day is over the real work begins. I know full well that from next week we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Mr Jones said the impact of the UK coalition had a big impact on the election. “We did find people on the doorstep time and time again saying they were unhappy with what’s happening at a UK level.”
One of Labour’s new AMs – Vaughan Gething in Cardiff South and Penarth
Lib Dems finished behind the BNP in a number of seats, and lost two key constituencies, Montgomeryshire and Cardiff Central.
Although Plaid’s Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones held Ceredigion, deputy leader Helen Mary Jones lost her seat in Llanelli – which she had held since 1999.
After a disappointing night for his party, Ieuan Wyn Jones said his party needed to look at the impact of having been in coalition with Labour for the past four years.
Labour was looking to take both Aberconwy and Clwyd West, but they were both won by the Tories. However, Nick Bourne lost his Mid and West Wales regional seat.
Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan paid tribute to the role Mr Bourne played in “transforming the image and fortunes of the Welsh Conservative Party”.
“This result is a great loss to the National Assembly and to me personally.”
Out of 60 assembly members, there will be 24 new faces in the Senedd.
But there was no breakthrough for either the Green Party or UKIP, who had each hoped to secure an assembly member through the regional list vote.
As well as assembly seats, people have also voted on whether to replace the first-past-the-post system for electing Westminster MPs with the alternative vote (AV). Counting will start in the AV referendum at 1600 BST on Friday.
There are indications that turnout may be lower than some had expected – around 41% – but final figures will not be known until later on Friday.
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Actor Nick Frost says he is keen to take on roles that take him out of his comedy comfort zone.
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A memorial to the 52 people killed was unveiled in Hyde Park in 2009
The coroner at the 7/7 London bombings inquests has formally ruled that the 52 people who died in the suicide attacks were unlawfully killed.
Lady Justice Hallett’s report made recommendations she said “may save lives”. She ruled out any further inquiries or inquests for the bombers.
She said there was no evidence that any organisational or individual failings “caused or contributed to the deaths”.
More than 700 people were injured in the four suicide bomb attacks in 2005.
Speaking to a packed courtroom that had awaited her conclusions during 19 weeks of evidence, she thanked the bereaved for their “understanding, support and quiet dignity”.
The bombers targeted Tube trains at Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square and a double decker bus in Tavistock Square.
The inquests heard 309 witnesses and a further 197 statements.
After Lady Justice Hallett gave her unlawful killing verdicts, counsel to the inquests Hugo Keith QC read the names of the victims.
With the examination of the emergency service response having been a major part of the inquiry’s remit, the coroner concluded that the problems encountered had not led to any deaths.
“We have unearthed material that has never previously seen the light of day”
Lady Justice Hallett Coroner
“I’m satisfied on balance of probabilities that each victim would have died whatever time the emergency services had arrived,” she said.
She added that all the expert medical and scientific evidence on the nature of the blasts shows that none could have survived, such was the nature of their injuries.
Having heard countless testimonies to the bravery of individuals on the day – including survivors, passers-by, and rescue workers – she said she had “run out of superlatives” for their courage.
Lady Justice Hallet said in her opening remarks that she was not aware of having left any reasonable stone unturned during the inquests.
The proceedings had gone “much further than simply recording the sad fact that 52 innocent members of the travelling public were unlawfully killed in a dreadful act of terrorism,” she said.
“We have explored in detail the circumstances of the deaths of each of the individuals and the adequacy of the emergency response.
“We have examined the background of [bombers] Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Germaine Lindsay, the extent to which any of them had previously come to the attention of the authorities and how they were assessed by the security service.
“We have unearthed material that has never previously seen the light of day,” she said.
She said that earlier concerns that the inquests could not provide a thorough investigation into MI5 and security issues had proved “unfounded”.
While MI5 and police had produced material that was relevant but could not be published, the coroner said she was satisfied with the inquiry’s public scrutiny of the Security Service’s action.
She criticised the “accuracy and completeness of information provided by MI5 ” to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).
The Tube bombing between King’s Cross and Russell Square killed 26 passengers
Lady Justice Hallett said that the inquests had revealed inaccuracies in the ISC’s reports on the bombings, some of which were more significant than others.
She said MI5’s chief of staff – who gave evidence as ‘Witness G’ – had “seemed to accept” during the hearings that the ISC had received information in closed hearings from the Security Service – but the subsequent mistakes in its report were not corrected.
“It remains unclear how the inaccuracies came about and why they were not corrected,” she said.
“It may be that some were the results of the service’s poor record-keeping and at least one inaccuracy according to ‘G’ was ‘because we didn’t brief them correctly’.”
The remit of the inquests at the Royal Courts of Justice in London included investigating the emergency services’ response on the day and considering whether MI5 could have prevented the attacks.
The relatives of those who died said they wanted lessons to be learned and for their loss to contribute to the saving of lives of others in future.
The inquest heard the security services failed to show a colour surveillance photograph of two of the bombers to a supergrass before the attacks.
The coroner recommended in her report that MI5 review its procedures on showing photographs to informants.
She made nine recommendations for MI5, the emergency services and Transport for London, aimed at saving lives in future.
The hearings revealed the confusion of the emergency services and transport controllers as the full extent of the situation emerged. There was a shortage of vital equipment, and mobile phones and radios did not work underground, the inquest was told.
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A crucial seat on Bury Council is going to a third recount at 1300 BST after the second recount was tied.
It is understood the seat in Ramsbottom, which was the final one to be decided, was split by two votes on the first count and tied between Labour and the Conservatives on the second.
Labour currently has 25 seats, the Tories 20 and the Liberal Democrats five.
If Labour wins the recount it will have an overall majority.
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Counting is under way across Northern Ireland’s eight centres
Turnout in the NI assembly elections is predicted to be significantly down on the 2007 figure.
There is still no official figure, but the percentage is predicted to be in the low to mid 50s.
This would be well down on both last year’s Westminster election and the last assembly election four years ago.
Counting has begun at some of the eight count centres in NI. Verification of votes is continuing at some of the eight centres across NI.
Chief Electoral Officer Graham Shields said things were running “pretty much on time”.
“We started opening the ballot boxes to verify the ballots at 0800 BST on Friday morning, in most locations,” he said.
“There was a slight delay at the Kings Hall in Belfast but we got under way shortly after 0900 BST.
“We hope to have the verification process completed across all count centres by 1600 BST on Friday.
“We’re hoping to have the first preference votes counted in respect of most constituencies by teatime.
“It’s very difficult to put a firm deadline on it but we hope that by about 1800 BST we should be able to announce some of those first preference results.”
The final make-up of the new assembly should be known by Saturday.
As the election workers check whether they have the right number of votes, agents for the political parties are looking over their shoulders trying to spot how many first preferences their candidates are getting and how many are going to their rivals.
This tallying process provides the first inklings in what will be a lengthy counting process.
BBC NI’s Political Editor Mark Devenport said: “So far the signs are not great for the Ulster Unionists, with the DUP confident they will gain a seat in North Down and the Ulster Unionist deputy leader John McCallister acknowledging he faces a tight fight for survival in South Down.
“There are also reports of a possible Ulster Unionist loss in east Antrim, whilst in Strangford the former TV presenter Mike Nesbitt appears to be out-polling his UUP running mate David McNarry.
“Both nationalist parties appear confident they have got their vote out.
“In South Belfast the Alliance’s Anna Lo has been performing strongly.”
Mr Devenport said although counting has only been ongoing for a short time, the focus is likely to be on the pecking order of the smaller parties in the Stormont coalition.
“If the UUP’s fortunes do not improve it could slip from 3rd to 4th place, which might mean the loss of its second executive department,” he added.
About 1,200 election workers will be counting votes over the next few days.
They have to open more than 4,000 ballot boxes to check they contain the same number of ballot papers as were handed out by staff at the polling stations.
Once staff have finished their checks, they will start counting the white assembly papers.
The brown council papers will not be counted until Monday and Tuesday of next week.
Ballots cast in the Alternative Vote Referendum will be counted at 1600 BST.
However the overall result of the UK-wide referendum is not expected until Friday evening.
Special Assembly election programmes began on radio and television at 1500 BST.
Radio Ulster news will keep you updated throughout the day — and News Online will have the results as they happen.
Politicians and pundits will also be giving their reaction on news online, radio and television.
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The BNP launched its English election campaign in Stoke-on-Trent where it lost all five of its seats
The British National Party looks set to lose many of the seats it holds on local councils in England.
After 168 council election results, the anti-immigration party had won one seat with a net loss of nine councillors.
The BNP lost all five of its seats in Stoke-on-Trent, where it launched its election campaign in England, and one of its two councillors in Burnley.
The party, which has two MEPs elected in 2009, lost almost half its council seats in last year’s local elections.
As well as elections in England, the BNP fielded candidates for the Scottish Parliament and the assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland.
However, the party had to rein back on its campaign spending with debts of more than £500,000, which it has said it expects to pay off by the end of the year.
The BNP was facing doubts over its future after costly court cases brought against it including one by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The party has said it will not be incurring any more debts as a result of Thursday’s elections.
The BNP contested 338 seats in the 2010 general election and lost its deposit in 266 of them.
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Anti-US protests in Pakistan on Friday have not attracted huge numbers
Al-Qaeda has confirmed the death of its leader, Osama Bin Laden, according to a statement attributed to the group and posted on jihadist internet forums.
The statement said his blood would not be “wasted” and al-Qaeda would continue to attack the US and its allies.
Bin Laden’s death would be a “curse” for the US and urged an uprising in Pakistan, the statement added.
The militant was shot dead on Monday when US commandos stormed his compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.
The covert raid was carried out without the prior knowledge of the Pakistani authorities, increasing tension between the two countries.
Several rallies are being held across Pakistan on Friday in protest.
The statement published on jihadist web forums, signed by “the general leadership” of al-Qaeda, said an audiotape would be released of Bin Laden speaking a week before his death.
“[His blood] will remain, with permission from Allah, the Almighty, a curse that chases the Americans and their agents, and goes after them inside and outside their countries,” it warned.
“Their happiness will turn into sorrow, and their blood will be mixed with their tears. We call upon our Muslim people in Pakistan, on whose land Sheikh Osama was killed, to rise up and revolt.”
Analysis
The release of a statement from “the general leadership” of al-Qaeda may do something to undermine the conspiracy theories circulating in some quarters that Osama Bin Laden is not dead.
However, there will no doubt be some for whom even this will not be enough, who will argue it is not definitive proof.
The message is also a means for al-Qaeda to stress that it remains in business and is committed to continuing its former leader’s work.
The US is attempting to exploit the death of Bin Laden to undermine the organisation. It is using intelligence retrieved from his compound to go after others, and trying to undermine the mythology surrounding the al-Qaeda leader to weaken the morale of his supporters.
The statement also opens the way for al-Qaeda to name a successor. Ayman al-Zawahiri is one possibility although he is believed to be a divisive figure.
Correspondents say many Pakistanis are angry at what they see as a US infringement of their country’s sovereignty.
They are also critical of Pakistan’s government for allowing the commando operation to happen, although officials deny they were told.
Hundreds of people gathered in central Abbottabad following Friday prayers. They set fire to tyres, blocked a main road and shouted “Down, down USA!” and “terrorist, terrorist, USA terrorist”.
Anti-American sentiment also appeared to be high at a similar protest in the south-western city of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.
However, a BBC correspondent in Rawalpindi says the anti-US protest there was much smaller than expected with about 50 people turning up.
Monday’s helicopter-borne raid by US special forces has further strained relations between the US and Pakistan.
On Thursday, Pakistani military leaders warned they would review co-operation with the US if there were any more unilateral raids.
Officials also admitted “shortcomings” for failing to locate Bin Laden in a compound that was in a suburb of Abbottabad about a kilometre from the Pakistan Military Academy, and said an investigation would be launched.
The al-Qaeda statement said an audiotape of Bin Laden recorded before his death would be released
Meanwhile, reports from the US says documents found at Osama Bin Laden’s compound suggest he was planning further attacks on the US, including on the 10th anniversary of 11 September 2001.
One plan was to target a US rail route, officials said, although no imminent threat was detected.
Officials are examining computers, DVDs, hard-drives and documents seized from the compound where Bin Laden is believed to have been hiding for about six years.
One of Bin Laden’s wives being interrogated by Pakistani security officials said she had never left the upper floors of the compound the entire time she was there.
She and Bin Laden’s other two wives were taken into custody following Monday’s raid.
Pakistani authorities are also holding eight or nine children who were found there, but it is not clear how many of them are Bin Laden’s.
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Alassane Ouattara will have a larger inauguration ceremony on 21 May
Alassane Ouattara is due to be sworn in as Ivory Coast’s president by the man who earlier denied him of victory in November’s presidential election.
In December, the leader of the Constitutional Council ratified Laurent Gbagbo as the winner, leading to a four-month stand-off.
Mr Gbagbo is also expected to be questioned about alleged human rights abuses while he was in power.
However, his French lawyers have reportedly been refused entry.
The AFP news agency says they were blocked at Abidjan airport and put on the next flight back to Paris.
Meanwhile, the EU is to give more than $60m (£37m) in aid to the country.
Europe’s development commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, who is in Ivory Coast, said speed was of the essence.
He told the BBC’s World Today programme that the situation remained complex and if people’s lives did not improve rapidly, violence could resume.
He said Ivorians felt they had lost 25 years of development potential because of the recent political and ethnic clashes.
Some 3,000 people are believed to have been killed during the unrest in the world’s largest cocoa producer, previously one of West Africa’s richest countries.
Mr Ouattara is due to take the oath of office at 1600 GMT in the presidential palace before Gbagbo ally Paul Yao N’Dre.
In December, the electoral commission said Mr Ouattara had won but Mr N’Dre annulled thousands of votes cast in favour of Mr Ouattara in rebel-held areas of the north, where Mr Gbagbo had alleged fraud.
The UN, which helped organise the elections, says it found no evidence of widespread fraud.
Mr N’Dre says he now accepts Mr Ouattara’s victory.
Friday’s swearing-in is to be followed by a ceremony attended by heads of state planned for 21 May.
Mr Gbagbo’s hearing was to take place in the northern town of Korhogo, where he is under house arrest.
But without his lawyers, it is not clear if it will still go ahead as planned.
His wife, Simone Gbagbo, is to be questioned on Saturday by an attorney in Odienne, in the north-west, where she is under house arrest.
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Bruno Mars is among the artists signed to Warner’s record labels
Warner Music has been bought by an industrial group whose holdings range from oil and aluminium firms to the UK’s Top Up TV.
Access Industries, run by Russian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik, paid $3.3bn (£2bn) in cash for the world’s third largest music firm.
Warner, whose artists include Bruno Mars, has been struggling with declining sales and profits.
Access Industries already owned a small stake in the US firm.
Warner Music Group, whose entire music and publishing businesses have been sold, will become a private company with its shares delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
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The Duke of Cambridge is involved in a third helicopter rescue in Snowdonia, exactly a week after his wedding.
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Tanks and trucks leave the southern city of Deraa but have been reported elsewhere
Syrian activists are preparing to take to the streets on Friday for what they are calling a “day of defiance”.
Tanks are reported to have withdrawn from the city of Deraa, where a human rights groups says the government has carried out a 10-day “massacre”.
But security forces are reported to have gathered in other urban areas, including the coastal town of Banias.
More than 500 Syrians are thought to have been killed during attempts to quell seven weeks of protests.
At least 2,500 others have been detained as part of a violent crackdown that the US has described as “barbaric”.
‘Total disgust’
In cities across Syria protesters are calling for greater political rights and personal freedoms. Some are calling for the downfall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
People are expected to gather again after prayers on Friday, which have become a regular focal point for protests in the Arab world in 2011.
The unrest in Syria poses the most serious challenge to four decades of rule by the Assad family in one of the Arab world’s most tightly controlled countries.
Foreign journalists are not allowed to enter the country, so it is difficult to verify the reports of deaths.
One doctor, who said he planned to join those demonstrating, said the “indiscriminate killings and inhumane arrests have generated total disgust among the average Syrian”.
“Soldiers with rifles no longer deter people. The propaganda that this regime is the only guarantor of stability no longer washes,” he was quoted as telling Reuters.
‘Preparing to attack’
Military units were reported to be deploying elsewhere on Thursday, including around the coastal town of Banias, home to one of Syria’s two oil refineries.
Four armoured personnel carriers, several tanks and a bus carrying soldiers were seen by one eyewitness quoted by the Associated Press.
Hundreds of families were said to be fleeing the area, fearing that Banias – like the city of Deraa – could come under siege.
“It looks like they are preparing to attack the town, like they did in Deraa,” one activist told the AFP news agency by telephone from the town.
A UN humanitarian team is expected to visit Deraa in the coming days, the organisation’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Thursday, following an appeal to President Bashar al-Assad by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Over the past two days there has also been an increased military presence also in the coastal towns of Homs and Rastan. Troops have also gathered in the Damascus suburbs of Erbin, Saqba, Douma and in the town of Tel, north of the capital.
In Washington, state department spokesman Mark Toner said the US continues to “press Assad’s regime to desist in its violent behaviour”.
“We abhor the violence there,” Mr Toner said. “I think I called it barbaric, the measures that were taken the other day against the citizens of Deraa, and we urge Syria to end these kinds of actions against innocent civilians who are simply expressing their aspirations for a democratic future.”
The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies says snipers and anti-aircraft machine guns were used to fire on unarmed civilians in the southern city and recent amateur video appears to show dozens of unarmed protesters being shot and bleeding to death on the streets.
It has labelled the killings in Deraa a “massacre”.
The government says it is taking action against “elements of terrorist groups… to restore security, peace and stability”.
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The coroner at the London 7/7 inquests has paid tribute to the “quiet dignity” of the families of the 52 innocent victims of the attacks.
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The SNP’s Alex Salmond said the night had been “historic”
The leader of the Scottish National Party Alex Salmond said the unfolding Holyrood election night results had been “historic”.
As dawn broke on Friday, the party’s tally was 30 seats, including 19 gains.
It is also turning out to be a bad night for the Lib Dems which have lost their deposits in at least 20 seats.
By 0515 BST the Tories had lost three constituencies, including ex-Tory leader David McLetchie’s Pentlands seat.
Mr Salmond, who held Aberdeenshire East with about 64% of the vote, added: “Firstly, I think it demonstrates that Scotland has outgrown negative campaigning.
“I hope after this result we’ll see an end to negativity and scaremongering in Scottish politics – no more insults to the intelligence of the Scottish people.”
Referring to an SNP forerunner, the National Party of Scotland, he added: “Some 70 years and more later, the SNP can finally say that we have lived up to that accolade as the national party of Scotland.
“We have reached out to every community across this country.”
Highlights so far include:
Reports are coming through that Labour has lost the seat of Glasgow Anniesland by seven votes. This constituency has significance for the party as it was held by the first first minister Donald Dewar who died in 2000.Four Labour MSPs who had represented Lanarkshire seats since 1999 lost out to the SNP. Former ministers Andy Kerr and Tom McCabe lost East Kilbride and Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse to the SNP’s Linda Fabiani and Christina McKelvie.Labour had better news in Eastwood where it held the Tory target seat. Ken Macintosh fought off advances from Conservative Jackson Carlaw.Blushes were spared when Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray held on to his his East Lothian seat by just 151 votes.Labour’s Malcolm Chisholm also held on to his Edinburgh Northern and Leith seat by a slim majority.
In his speech following the declaration, Mr Gray thanked the people of East Lothian for re-electing him, and said it was “a great privilege” to represent the constituency.
Mr Gray spoke about helping young people into employment, care for the elderly and help for businesses, education and a living wage.
He said: “I promise you that I will fight every minute of every day for the next five years for these things, the things that really matter here in East Lothian.
“Scotland has made a choice tonight too. And while we cannot know for sure what that choice is, the indications are clear.
“Given the opportunity, Labour would devote itself to those self-same things that really matter.
“Whatever the outcome of the election tonight, these will be Labour’s priorities in the parliament and in the five years ahead.
“We will pursue them, we will argue for them, we dedicate ourselves to them, and we will work with anyone who will work with us to get Scotland working again.”
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Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray resigns as the Scottish National Party heads towards a major victory in the Scottish Parliament elections.
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