MANY well-known MPs have lost their seats in a dramatic election, but there are some familiar names also set to make a return to politics.
While Nigel Farage has secured his first term at Westminster, his victory does represent a return to elected politics having been an MEP for two decades until the UK left the EU.
Meanwhile, two faces of the past have successfully made comebacks in Scotland at the first time of asking.
Here’s a bit more on those making a political return following the poll.
Douglas Alexander – Labour
Former Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander is back in the Commons after winning Lothian East.
He took the seat from the SNP, winning 49% of the vote to their 21.4%.
He had been the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South from 1997 to 2015 when he lost to Mhairi Black as part of an SNP landslide.
The Lothian East constituency was previously represented by Kenny MacAskill who defected to the Alba Party in 2021 from the SNP and unsuccessfully stood in this election in Alloa and Grangemouth for Alex Salmond’s party.
Stephen Gethins – SNP
The former SNP spokesperson for Europe, Stephen Gethins (below), has been an observer of politics from the sidelines for the past five years after he lost the North East Fife seat to Wendy Chamberlan of the LibDems in 2019.
He has spent the last few years as a professor of international relations at the University of St Andrews but told The National a few months ago he had unfinished business at Westminster when he was selected as the SNP’s candidate for the new seat of Arbroath and Broughty Ferry.
Gethins won with 15,581 votes to Labour’s 14,722.
It represented a notional decrease in the SNP’s vote share of 15.6% in the new constituency as Labour closed the gap significantly on John Swinney’s party, but in the context of a rough night for the SNP overall where they lost dozens of seats, this is a significant victory for Gethins.
Nigel Farage - Reform UK
Though Farage has never been an MP before, he did spend more than two decades in the European Parliament and after winning the Clacton seat he will be making a return as an elected politician representing Reform UK.
He secured a majority of nearly 10,000 as he took the seat from the Conservatives.
Reform caused problems for the Tories all night long and won four seats in total, with party chairman Richard Tice claiming victory in Boston and Skegness and Tory defector Lee Anderson retaining his Ashfield seat.
Former Brexit Party MEP Richard Lowe also won in Great Yarmouth.
