What led to the SNP electoral earthquake?

No longer a one-party state, Scotland delivered a major surprise on election night

Alec Salmond
(Image credit: Getty Images)

In a general election full of unexpected twists, perhaps the biggest came north of the border where the Scottish National Party suffered heavy defeats ending their one-party hegemony.

"The SNP tsunami of 2015, in which the party took 56 of Scotland's 59 constituencies, was followed yesterday by an earthquake in which the SNP lost more than a third of their MPs," says Alex Massie in The Times.

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