THE mood as lawyer Paul Masterton was elected as the new MP for Renfrewshire East was strangely muted. 

Jubilation among local Conservatives as he triumphed in this three-way contest was clearly tempered by more catastrophic results south of the Border for Theresa May.

In the end, this wasn’t as close as had been predicted, with Mr Masterton triumphing over the SNP’s Kirsten Oswald, by 4,712 votes. The Conservatives had come a distant third in the same seat in 2015. 

Terse anxiety from all the parties at the outset – “It’s tight” was all the Conservative camp would say – gradually gave way to smiles as the blue ranks started debating whether Ms Oswald or Labour candidate and former Better Together chief Blair McDougall would be runner-up.That honour went to Ms Oswald, again by a good margin.

She arrived looking brittle – responding to inquiries about the result with: “You know how it’s looking” and her camp were despondent by 2am as the ballots stacked up for the Tories and SNP losses began around the country. 

In “The Street”, the spacious dining hall-cum-marketplace reception area at East Renfrewshire’s Williamwood High School, there was celebration of the Conservative successes in Scotland, from Mr Masterton’s supporters, with a particularly big roar as the seat of Angus Robertson was taken. The loss of Ochil and Perthshire South by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh was also greeted with delight. 

By contrast from the disconsolate SNP contingent, as Kirsty Blackman retained Aberdeen North, a single angry shout of “get in!” echoed rather pitifully round the hall. 

Mr Masterton was in little doubt the Conservative progress north of the Border represented a victory for the party’s message of opposition to a second independence referendum. “People have had enough of not being listened to,” he said. “This result shows we were right to say we were the only party which could beat the SNP here.”

The 31-year-old does appear to have called that right. Likewise, despite a 75 per cent EU referendum poll for remain in East Renfrewshire, voters seem not to have been deterred by Conservative pursuit of a hard Brexit.

“The question of Brexit is very much secondary to the question of independence,” he said on the campaign trail – again presciently.

He had never been confident of victory, but had got a boost earlier 
in the week, he said, when the BBC’s Nick Robinson had come 
to the constituency. After following the Conservative candidate to 
locations of Mr Masterton’s choosing, the broadcaster had leaned on 
him to knock on some doors in Barrhead, he said. 

Once reliable Labour territory, he had feared the outcome of this unscheduled diversion – but in fact he claims they encountered only Tory voters. “I couldn’t have staged it any better. In fact, I would have included some opponents to make it more realistic,” he admits. Neilston, by contrast, had remained hard work for his team.

Ms Oswald was left to rue the loss of a seat she has held for just two 
years. She had been angered by media reports that the other two parties had campaigned hard in the seat and her party had not. This maligned those who had worked tirelessly in the attempt to re-elect her, she said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

While not being high-profile, the former college HR manger had established herself as a diligent constituency MP since taking her place on the green benches. She said her relatively brief stint as an MP had 
been “fantastic” and insisted the 56-strong SNP block elected to Westminster in 2015 had made an impact, connecting community and the UK Parliament.

Having joined the party just a couple of years before she was elected, she is still convinced Scotland should make its own decisions about its future, she said. “I will remain a member and continue to fight for that.”

Mr McDougall had hoped to win back the seat held until 2015 by former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy, but, despite an apparent unionist 
surge, and his Better Together credentials, he was unable to capitalise on the SNP’s slump. 

He claims not to have had a drink all year, but departed the count after the 3am result intending to drown his sorrows with a dram. This would be an “Octagon”, he said. I can’t trace this malt, but  to be fair it was in the early hours. Perhaps  he meant the  Bruichladdich Octomore. 

Either way, he bought it bottled direct from the cask by quality-at-a-price eco-supermarket Wholefoods in affluent Giffnock. You can’t get much more East Renfrewshire than that. 

And regardless of his own result, he didn’t give the impression of a man with sorrows to submerge, buoyed by the SNP’s woes and the Labour advances UK-wide. Voters north of the Border had decisively rejected a second independence referendum, he said, and south of the Border had rejected Theresa May. “This is an extraordinary night, it has changed politics completely,” he added. 

The new Conservative MP is a solicitor, who only joined the Tories two years ago, motivated by a desire to defend the Union.

He quickly became secretary of the Renfrewshire and Inverclyde Scottish Conservative Association, and fought the Paisley seat at the Scottish Parliament elections, where he failed to be elected as  an MSP, but established a reputation as a hard-working candidate. He lives in Paisley and is married with two young children, a three-year-old daughter Daisy and one year old son, Charlie.