The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has said he expects the party to be “beat well” in the General Election.
Speaking after he retained his Aberdeen South seat, Mr Flynn was unequivocal about the scale of the defeat facing his party.
The Sky News/ITV News/BBC exit poll projected the SNP to drop to just 10 seats and the party have lost a number of seats to Labour in the early contests announced on Friday morning.
Addressing the crowds in Aberdeen, he said: “We are experiencing something that we have not experienced for quite some time.
“We are going to be beat in Scotland, we are going to be beat well.”
He added: “Now is the time when we must learn and we must listen.
“We must listen to what the people of Scotland tell us.
“When you are knocked down, you have to get back up.
“And when you get back up you must be willing to inspire, you must be bold in your action and you must be committed to the values which you hold dear.
“My colleagues and I who are returned to Westminster continue to put Scotland’s interests first, to serve the people of Scotland and hopefully regain the trust that has been lost at this election.”
Later speaking to the BBC, Mr Flynn turned his focus on his own colleagues, saying: “What we need to focus on now as a party is how we get ourselves into winning shape in the next 18 months in the build-up to the Scottish Parliament election.
“That’s going to require a lot of effort from people and it’s probably going to require some people to open the curtain and look at some of their own skeletons and realise that we’ve not been doing things as well as we possibly could have been. Myself included in that regard.
“So it’s a time for reflection, it’s a time to listen and hopefully a time to rebuild and come back better.
“But for just now my thoughts are just with my colleagues and indeed their staff who have lost their jobs across Scotland and I just wish them well.”
