Scott Arthur elected MP

Labour's Scott Arthur speaks at Edinburgh count after winning Edinburgh South West from the SNP's Joann Cherry  5-07-24

Transcript

00:00So I didn't come here to be standing here right now this evening. Honestly, I'm so surprised.

00:11Paul, I want to thank you and I want to thank all the staff here, in particular Chris Highcock

00:17who's done such a great job supporting all the candidates. And the police for keeping

00:26us safe here and right across the election today. I also want to thank my campaign team.

00:33There's too many people to mention, but right at the head of it is Stephen Jenkinson, my

00:38agent. In the process he developed a hyper-local targeting, I think he called it. I never quite

00:52understood it, but I think he's done the job for us. So well done, Stephen. And I also

00:57should thank, amongst all the people, and there's so many people helped, Simon and Albie,

01:02thank you for all your help. Thank you. And I also have to thank all my favourite candidates.

01:12I've actually had a really enjoyable campaign and I've loved every minute of it. And also

01:17in particular I want to thank Joanna Cherry as the outgoing MP. And people may know I'm a

01:31councillor here in Edinburgh and a large part of my ward covers Edinburgh South West and I've

01:38always felt, I've always found dealing with her office to be really easy and her staff to be

01:43utterly professional and I know it's going to be difficult to match that. So just thank you again,

01:49Joanna. So it is truly humbling to have won actually and I absolutely, we did not come

02:04here tonight expecting to win. So it really is humbling. I cannot believe it. And obviously I

02:14want to thank everyone who voted for me. I absolutely will not let you down. But I'm very

02:21mindful that only minority people won for me. I have won on a minority vote, the nature of first

02:27pass to post of course. But I am here to represent everyone in the constituency, whether you voted

02:32for me or not, or whether you voted or not, I am here. It looks like we're on course for a Labour

02:41government led by Keir Starmer and it will have Scotland at its heart. And I genuinely cannot

02:48blame, but I've got a chance to be part of that. Part of the change that's going to happen.

03:00And I also hope that it's the end of an era here where Scotland is sending MPs into our government, not

03:07into opposition. And that is a really, really important thing. I'll just end by saying that the hard

03:14work now begins, but I'll never stop. We'll be listening to a lot of people right through this

03:20campaign. And as we go through the difficult weeks, months and even years ahead, as we get

03:25our country back on track, we will not stop listening to people here and people right across

03:30the country. Thank you. And I will not let you down. Thank you.