Scotland election live: Labour celebrates after gains from SNP as Conservative leader Douglas Ross loses seat

Summary

After 56 declarations, Labour has won 37 seats; the SNP nine; Liberal Democrats five; and Conservatives five
It was a triumphant night for Labour which took dozens of seats off the SNP, including all six in Glasgow
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross lost his bid to return to Westminster, describing it a "historically bad night" for the Conservatives
First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney described the result for his party as "very, very difficult and damaging".
SNP casualties included Kirsten Oswald, Tommy Sheppard, Alison Thewliss and high-profile MP Joanna Cherry
Labour's Ian Murray, who comfortably held his Edinburgh South seat, has been appointed as the new Scottish Secretary
One final seat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire - has yet to be called and will go to a re-count on Saturday. The Lib Dems are expected to win after SNP candidate Drew Hendry conceded defeat

Live Reporting

Edited by Paul McLaren and Steven Brocklehurst

Exit poll suggests Labour have won the election with a landslide victorypublished at 22:03 British Summer Time 4 July
The exit poll suggests Labour have won the election with a landslide victory.
If it is correct Sir Keir Starmer will be walking into No. 10 tomorrow.
The exit poll is designed to give an indication of the total number of seats in Great Britain that each party will win.
Because the sample size of the exit poll in Scotland is smaller, a clearer picture of the result north of the border will not materialise until after the first results have been declared in the early hours of the morning.
The polls have now closedpublished at 22:00 British Summer Time 4 July
That's it... the polls across Scotland and the rest of the UK have now closed.
Who's voting in this election?published at 21:47 British Summer Time 4 July
Today's Scottish electorate – made up of people aged 18 and over who are registered to vote – is 4,081,585, according to the Electoral Commission.
The total number of postal voters in Scotland is 998,863, which is 24% of the electorate.
That number has been on the rise across the UK in recent years, but there have been concerns about postal votes arriving in time for Scots who were off on their summer holidays during the election.
How BBC Scotland is covering the electionpublished at 21:45 British Summer Time 4 July
As well as following along with us online, you can watch and listen to live coverage of the General Election across BBC Scotland platforms.
On TV:
- An overnight television programme, starting at 21:55 on BBC One Scotland live from Pacific Quay, Glasgow. It will run until 09:30 on Friday.
- Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, will interview a host of politicians and commentators through the night
- There will be news updates throughout Friday, including Reporting Scotland at 18:30
On Radio:
- Our TV coverage will be broadcast simultaneously on BBC Radio Scotland live from 21:55 until 05:00
- Good Morning Scotland will be on air from 05:00 to 09:30 on BBC Radio Scotland
- From 09:30 you can have your say on Morning Call
Online:
- Our live coverage will run from 22:00 all the way through until 22:00 on Friday
- We will also bring you breaking news stories as they happen
More candidates to choose frompublished at 21:42 British Summer Time 4 July
Voters in Scotland may have had more choice at this election than any other before.
A total of 423 candidates put their names forward across the country’s 57 constituencies.
That’s a huge rise from the 292 in 2019, and the mere 266 of 2017.
In fact it’s the highest figure since 1997, when there were 431 candidates.
And that was across 72 constituencies, before two different boundary reviews cut the number of Scottish seats.
So when you work out the average number of candidates per constituency, voters in Scotland may well have had the broadest range of options they’ve ever been offered.
There was an average of 7.42 candidates on each ballot paper in the election this year - well above the 5.98 of 1997.
Welcomepublished at 21:26 British Summer Time 4 July
Good evening and welcome to BBC Scotland's live online coverage of the UK General Election 2024.
We'll be kicking off just as the polls close across the country at 22:00.
Stick with us for what promises to be an exciting night as we bring you all the results, reports and analysis right through into Friday.
You can watch the BBC election programme by clicking on the play icon at the top of the page.