BREAKING: Liberal Democrat’s Angus MacDonald wins Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire seat after marathon recount
The Liberal Democrats’ Angus MacDonald has won a major victory in the newly formed Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire seat - 44 hours after the count began
The win comes after a massive delay due a recount and significant questions about the process adopted by Highland Council.
The declaration means Mr MacDonald is the final MP to be confirmed in the 2024 general election.
The turnout was 48,221 which is 61.88 per cent of the electorate.
The snap election was announced in May by Rishi Sunak leaving many parties flailing as they rushed to prepare for the campaign but Mr MacDonald was already under way with his fight for votes.
A Highland councillor for Fort William and Ardnamurchan, he was already well-known on the west coast while there appears to have been increasing disenchantment with the SNP in the population centre of Inverness.
Issues that played against Drew Hendry - who had previously represented Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey since 2015 - included the failure to dual the A9 along with the SNP being riddled with scandal in recent years.
The win means large sections of what was the SNP’s Ian Blackford’s constituency, as well as Mr Hendry’s former constituency, now going to the Lib Dems in what many in the party see as righting the wrong when Charles Kennedy lost the seat in 2015.