The attached pdfs provide details of the votes cast in the two constituencies for which we have a responsibility, together with those cast in the neighbouring Midlothian constituency, where our candidate was Michelle Ballantyne, the leader of the Conservative group on the Scottish Borders council.
In Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, David faced a strong challenge from the SNP, whereas in 2010 the main challenge had been provided by the Labour party. Although, as in every Scottish constituency, there was a substantial swing to the SNP and it overtook the Labour party as David's main challenger, David increased his vote and successfully retained the seat. He has now been appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland.
As expected, the contest in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk proved to be a very tight race between and the SNP, with the Liberal Democrats trailing a distant third. In the end the SNP won the seat by a margin of 328 votes but our candidate, John Lamont, remains the MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire. Despite losing, John increased his vote in both absolute and relative terms whereas that of the Liberal Democrat incumbent collapsed.
Although outwith Scottish Borders, the Midlothian constituency was contested for the Conservatives by Michelle Ballantyne, the leader of our group on the Scottish Borders council. Michelle managed to increase the Conserative vote and maintain our share in the face of the strong swing from Labour to the SNP and the decision by a number of Conservative supporters to vote tactically for Labour in order to try and prevent the SNP from winning the seat.
David, John, Michelle and the Association would like to thank all the volunteers who expended so much time and effort in support of our candidates.