WHEN Ian Murray stepped up to make his acceptance speech at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre there was a wild desperation to the Labour cheering.

 

It wasn't just the first seat the party had managed to hold on to in Scotland. It was to prove to be the only seat saved on a night of political carnage. Five years ago, when most pundits saw the Edinburgh South seat as a contest between the Tories and Liberal Democrats after the retirement of Labour veteran Nigel Griffiths, Murray defied the odds and saved the seat.

Yesterday, while across Scotland seasoned Labour MPs fell to upstart Nationalist novices, the man defending Labour's smallest majority became the last man standing after what appeared to be significant tactical voting and the total collapse of the LibDem vote.

On a night of high drama at the venue, which was used to collate the national count at the 1997 devolution referendum, Labour stalwarts arrived with expressions of shock and disbelief at the exit polling pointing to failure for them in England and calamity North of the Border. As the ballot boxes for the five Edinburgh constituencies began to be opened their worst fears were confirmed.

It swiftly became evident that at least three of the four Labour-held seats were slipping from their grasp: Edinburgh North and Leith, where Mark Lazarowicz was soon falling behind the SNP's Deidre Brock; Edinburgh East where Sheila Gilmour was swamped by support for Tommy Sheppard, the former senior Labour official and comedy club impresario; and Edinburgh South West, the constituency where former Chancellor and Better Together leader leader Alistair Darling was stepping down, was being taken by leading QC Joanna Cherry.

In spite of the widespread LibDem disintegration, the Edinburgh West seat of Mike Crockart appeared a surprisingly tight contest but the SNP's Michelle Thomson pulled away to take the seat by more than 3000 votes. That seat had been in LibDem hands since the Conservative collapse of 1997.

However, the LibDems' travails were to prove significant in the one seat which remained in doubt. When Nigel Griffiths stood down five years ago it fell to Ian Murray to replicate Labour's regular Houdini acts in that constituency, which he achieved by just 316 votes, a majority of less than 1%.

And yet, against the odds, this was to be Labour's unlikely success of the great 2015 wipeout, and in part it came down to the total collapse of the LibDem vote, which saw them lose their deposit and trail in fifth behind the Greens. The Tory vote for Miles Briggs held at a respectable 17.5%, so it appeared that tactical voting by LibDems helped Mr Murray see off the challenge of the SNP's Neil Hay with a majority of 2637.

Relief evident in the cheers of his supporters, Mr Murray declared that constitutional politics "never lifted a child out of poverty" and added: "Tonight, congratulations go to the SNP and all their successful candidates. Having built the hopes and aspirations of Scots, you are now charged with meeting those heavy responsibilities.

"You can not now hide from, or blame others for not meeting those promises."

It had been a rough campaign, with Labour unearthing an old Twitter account of Mr Hay in which he was disparaging about some elderly voters and tweeted a link to a satirical website which spoke of opponents of independence as "Quislings". This enabled Labour to paint him as a "Cybernat".

Mr Murray, a shadow trade minister, had also built his profile in the city by heading up the Foundation of Hearts group which saw supporters of the football team pledge finance to rescue the club. Now it falls to him to rescue the fortunes of Scottish Labour.