By HANNAH RODGER and STEWART PATERSON

TWO Glasgow MPS will be among the latest batch preparing to travel to Westminster after scooping seats on both sides of the city.

In Glasgow East, David Linden narrowly scraped in to first place, beating Labour’s Kate Watson by just 75 votes.

The majority has been drastically reduced from the General Election in 2015, which saw the SNP’s Natalie McGarry easily secure her seat with a majority of more than 10,000 votes.

Mr Linden, a former parliamentary assistant to Alison Thewliss MP, previously worked with the MP to campaign against the ‘rape clause’ as well as constituency problems.

Growing up in Cranhill and Garrowhill, the new MP was involved in the Yes campaign in Shettleston ahead of the 2014 referendum and has a background in finance. He is also involved in charity work.

He said his experience with Westminster would stand him in good stead as a fully-fledged MP, saying: “I’m going to get started on holding the Tories to account in Westminster.

“I’ve spent the last two years working with Alison [Thewliss] to try and expose the Tories for what they are, which is the nasty party. I certainly intend to do that as an MP in Westminster.

“The fact they want to close two of our three job centres, the fact they want to introduce an abhorrent rape clause, and they are ideologically obsesses with austerity...these are the things I want to get stuck in to and campaign on.”

He paid tribute to his roots during his acceptance speech yesterday morning, and said: “More than 20 years ago as a wee boy growing up in the shadows of Cranhill water tower, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that one day I’d be elected to parliament to serve my community in the House of Commons.”

Paul Sweeney is a former BAE shipyard employee on the Clyde. He was involved with the no campaign during the referendum and was secretary of the Springburn Winter Gardens Trust, campaigning to restore the derelict glasshouse.

He said “We didn’t really expect it was possible with the size of the majority but we fought a passionate and committed campaign on Labour values and the people responded to it.”

He added: “We have seen a real breakthrough in Glasgow for the Labour Party. When Labour offers a vision of hope, the people of Glasgow respond to that.

“I didn’t expect it. The majority was huge and I think the swing to the SNP last time was the biggest in Scotland so we thought that was a big challenge. We campaigned on a message of positivity to improve the lives of people in the north east.

“Glasgow is the cradle of the Labour Party and Labour movement and people have always been socialist in outlook.

“There are multiple strands to this. A part is people are opposed to a second referendum but people are also looking for hope. People were looking for that in the SNP and they have been found wanting in not being truly radical.”