Scottish Conservatives win first Westminster by-election in more than 50 years

The Scottish Conservatives have won a Westminster by-election for the first time in more than 50 years, taking Aberdeen South from the SNP.

The seat, vacated by the SNP's Stephen Flynn, was won by Tory MSP Douglas Lumsden.

Shortly afterwards the SNP claimed a victory in the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry by-election where Lara Bird held the seat for the party.

Lumsden, who is unable to sit in both parliaments due to a Holyrood ban on so-called dual mandates, is to resign from Holyrood just six weeks after winning re-election as a North East MSP.

South of the border, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham won the Makerfield by-election, paving the way for him to challenge Sir Keir Starmer as Labour Party leader.

The Scottish by-elections were triggered when sitting MPs - Flynn and his SNP colleague Stephen Gethins - resigned from the House of Commons after being elected to Holyrood.

Aberdeen is at the heart of the debate around the UK's energy future, and the UK government has chosen the city as the home of GB Energy - its fledgling publicly-owned energy company.

Lumsden, a former oil and gas worker, said his constituents had sent a message that "the destruction of the oil and gas industry must stop now".

The North East MSP defeated SNP candidate Richard Thomson, a former MP for Gordon, by a margin of more than 6,000 votes, with the Tories taking almost half of all ballots cast.

In Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, Bird won the seat on Scotland's east coast for the SNP with a majority of more than 5,000 votes over the Conservatives.

Bird, from near Kirriemuir, is a qualified lawyer who has worked as an SNP researcher and adviser at Westminster.

She said voters had "rejected the politics of division and hate" and made it clear that Scotland's future "lies with independence".

Labour slipped from second to fourth in the constituency, with Reform in third.

Flynn, who is now Scotland's economy secretary, responded to the loss of his old seat on social media, posting: "A tough night in Aberdeen that some will need to reflect on, quite heavily."

He added: "We lost Aberdeen South to the Tories in 2017, and we won it back two years later.

"I've no doubt that we can do so again. If we get things right."

Lumsden will have 49 days to resign as an MSP, under Holyrood's dual mandate ban.

His place in the Scottish Parliament will be taken by the next candidate on the Conservatives' North East Scotland list, Fraserburgh councillor James Adams.

The Conservatives last won a Westminster by-election north of the border in 1973, when they held Edinburgh North.

The Scottish Tories had not gained a seat in a Westminster by-election since 1967, when they took Glasgow Pollok from Labour.

The Aberdeen South defeat comes just six weeks after the SNP won a comfortable victory in the Scottish election.

Within weeks the party was rocked by a scandal surrounding former chief executive Peter Murrell, who admitted in court to embezzling more than £400,000 of SNP funds over a 12-year period.

He is due to be sentenced next week.