Sturgeon's SNP set for another stunning Holyrood election success

An upbeat Nicola Sturgeon arrived at the city’s Emirates Arena to huge cheers and declared: “We are not so much beating Labour in Glasgow but replacing them in Glasgow.”

On the prospect of taking all of the city’s seats, she said: "We did it last year; we have to wait and see the results tonight but let's say I'm quietly confident that we might see a repeat performance this evening."

The First Minister said she was taking nothing for granted ahead of the results but added that she felt "very humbled by the trust people across Scotland are putting in the SNP".

Ms Sturgeon added Labour’s apparent collapse in support was "quite staggering".

By dawn, there remained a question-mark over whether or not the First Minister’s party would secure a second successive overall majority.

The early mood of election night was set when the SNP secured its first victory with the party ousting Labour's James Kelly in Rutherglen.

The result, the second of the night to be declared, saw Clare Haughey elected as the new MSP for the area, which Labour had held since the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999. Ms Haughey polled 15,222 votes, comfortably ahead of Mr Kelly on 11,479.

Glasgow City Council leader and former Labour MSP Frank McAveety told BBC Scotland the defeat of Mr Kelly was a "tough one". He added: "They've lost a local champion in James Kelly."

The SNP held on to Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse with Christina McKelvie easily retaining the seat. She said the result showed "Scotland still wants something different, wants something to believe in".

Labour came second in the seat but its vote was down from the previous Holyrood election, while the Conservative support increased.

As the votes trickled in through the early hours the question was not if the SNP would secure another term in government but how large its contingent of MSPs would be.

Earlier, Nationalist hopes of a comfortable majority were backed by the final opinion poll of the campaign, which put support for Ms Sturgeon’s party on 48 per cent in the constituency vote and 41 per cent in the regional ballot.

The YouGov figures, which have barely changed during the six-week campaign, put the SNP on course to equal the 69 seats it won five years ago.

The SNP’s huge poll lead meant it was facing a serious threat in only a handful of seats across the country, with the regional lists, which account for 56 of Holyrood’s 129 seats, decisive in the final make-up of the fifth parliament since devolution.

Ms Sturgeon took selfies with other voters as she joined her husband, the SNP’s chief executive Peter Murrell, to vote early in the day at a polling station in the east end of Glasgow.

“I’m feeling good, we’ve fought a great campaign,” she declared.

As the SNP leader prepares to form a government with her own personal mandate behind it, the YouGov poll sounded a warning about her future priorities.

Asked to select up to three priorities from a list of 11 policy areas, 51 per cent chose improving the health service, 43 per cent said boosting the economy and 38 per cent said creating jobs.

Making the case for independence was the second least popular option, underlining how divisive Ms Sturgeon’s planned summer campaign could prove.

Ms Sturgeon sought to steer the election debate away from the constitution in the final few days after sustained attacks from her opponents, particularly the Tories, on her plan to push for a second referendum if support for independence rises above 50 per cent over a sustained period.

Kevin Pringle, the SNP’s former head of communications, has speculated openly about a second independence poll taking place in the autumn of 2020, if the Conservatives defeat Labour in the next General Election.