LABOUR’S Chris Murray has described being elected as the new MP for the majority of Musselburgh as "an enormous honour", after producing a spectacular victory to defeat the SNP.

The Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency which had last been contested in 2001 was revived for last week’s General Election, with two-thirds of East Lothian’s largest town added to the previous Edinburgh East constituency which had been represented by the SNP’s Tommy Sheppard since 2015.

With nine years’ experience as the incumbent, and defending a whopping majority of 10,417 votes from the last election in 2019 – with a 48.4 per cent vote share – Mr Sheppard was presumed very much to be the favourite this time around, even with Scottish Labour polling neck and neck with the SNP nationally after a difficult decade for the party north of the Border.

But on a night when the Nationalists were reduced from 48 seats to just nine, losing every one of their seats in the Central Belt and south of Scotland in the process, Mr Sheppard could not stave off the red wave as Mr Murray surged to 18,790 votes, a 41.2 per cent share of the vote and a majority of 3,715.

Mr Sheppard’s vote share fell to 33.1 per cent as he pulled in 15,075 votes on the night, coming closer than many of his colleagues across the nation to holding onto his seat but ultimately coming up short.

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Following his election, Mr Murray said: “It is an enormous honour to be elected MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh.

“I know many people voted Labour for the first time, or the first time in a long time, because they want change.

“I want to thank everyone who voted for me and put their trust in me.

“I will work as hard as I can for this community and, to those voters who did not vote for me or stayed at home, the hard work starts now to build your trust.

“We promised a government with Scotland at its heart and therefore I was delighted when the Prime Minister’s first public engagement took place here in Edinburgh East and Musselburgh last Sunday.

“After 14 years, we finally have a Prime Minister focused on delivering for Scotland.

“I’m still in the process of setting up my office, so please bear with me as myself and my team get set up, but do not hesitate to get in touch via email or social media.

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“I know there will be many challenges ahead and I’ve spoken to thousands of you about the issues you face.

“Despite this, I believe Musselburgh’s best days are ahead and I can’t wait to get to work with you all to make that happen.”

Meanwhile, the Greens, who had finished fifth in the old Edinburgh East seat in 2019, surged into third place, their candidate Amanda Grimm more than doubling the party’s vote share to 10.2 per cent and receiving 4,669 votes.

In contrast, it was a disastrous night for the Conservatives both nationally and in the new constituency, where candidate Marie-Clair Munro only managed 2,598 votes, 5.7 per cent of the vote, barely a third of what the party had managed last time around.

Reform UK candidate Derek Winton actually came close to finishing ahead of the Tories, ending up just 469 votes back on 2,129, a 4.7 per cent vote share.

In sixth was the Liberal Democrats’ Charles Dundas with 1,949 votes (4.3 per cent), while independent Jane Gould brought up the rear with 365 votes (0.8 per cent).

Turnout was very slightly below the national average at 59.8 per cent, a drop of more than nine per cent from 2019.