Nicola Sturgeon 'thrilled and proud' of SNP's 'stupendous' council election results

Nicola Sturgeon says she is “thrilled and proud” of the SNP’s council election victory that she hailed as “stupendous”.

The First Minister was speaking as her party extended their term as the country’s biggest party in local authorities.

The SNP, who have been in power in Holyrood since 2007, increased their number of councillors in Scotland by 22 in Thursday’s election.

They now have a total of 453 throughout the country, which is almost 200 more than Scottish Labour who are in second place with 282.

She said: “I am thrilled and very proud at the SNP’s result today. After 15 years in government we have not only won this election, overwhelmingly, we have increased our share of the votes, increased our number of councillors and we are the largest party in more councils today than we were yesterday.

“It is a stupendous result for the SNP and I want to congratulate councillors, activists, supporters across the country, we take nothing for granted but after 15 years in government it really is an outcome of amazing proportions.”

The SNP returned the highest number of councillors but Scottish Labour was able to capitalise on the collapse of the Tories.

Anas Sarwar’s party saw their ranks increase by 20 councillors.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross described the results as “very disappointing”, adding that the Prime Minister “can’t ignore the message” from voters.