{"id":946185,"date":"2026-05-08T13:56:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/946185\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:56:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:56:22","slug":"lib-dems-set-to-take-big-step-forward-in-scotland-cole-hamilton-predicts-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/946185\/","title":{"rendered":"Lib Dems set to take \u2018big step forward\u2019 in Scotland, Cole-Hamilton predicts \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has predicted his party is poised to take a \u201cbig step forward\u201d in the Holyrood election.<\/p>\n

Mr Cole-Hamilton was cheered by supporters as he arrived at the Edinburgh count at the Royal Highland Centre on Friday accompanied by wife Gill and daughter Darcy.<\/p>\n

He predicted a win for the party in Edinburgh Northern \u2013 an achievement he said would be \u201castonishing\u201d given the Lib Dems trailed the SNP by around 20,000 votes in 2021 in the old Edinburgh Northern and Leith constituency.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur became the first MSP to be returned to Holyrood \u2013 winning a record share of the vote in the process.<\/p>\n

\"Feargal<\/a>\"King<\/a>\"AlexAlex Cole-Hamilton was in upbeat mood as he arrived at the Edinburgh election count (David Young\/PA) <\/p>\n

His 70% of the vote represented the biggest share in the Scottish Parliament\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Cole-Hamilton acknowledged there was disappointment for the party in Shetland, where it lost its long-held seat to the SNP.<\/p>\n

But he insisted the Lib Dems are still set for a good election result overall in Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still really early and, of course, nobody\u2019s even really looked at the regional list ballots, but it\u2019s clear we\u2019re winning in parts of the country we\u2019ve never won before, and also very hopeful about regional gains as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very mixed bag across the country. Obviously, some really odd results happening, but for the Lib Dems, no question, it\u2019s a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019re encouraged by a lot of the data we\u2019re seeing. I mean it\u2019s going to be a big step forward for the Lib Dems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Cole-Hamilton also reiterated that he would not countenance being involved in any coalition arrangement with the SNP.<\/p>\n

He said if John Swinney is returned as Scotland\u2019s First Minister, his party will engage with the SNP government from the opposition benches on an \u201cissue-by-issue\u201d basis to seek concessions on Lib Dem priority areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been clear from the start, and I stand by that, that there will be no coalition with the SNP,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for all the questions that Scotland currently faces, the answer to none of them is a third decade of SNP administration, and so we\u2019re happy to rule that out.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the prospect of Mr Swinney returning as First Minister, Mr Cole-Hamilton added: \u201cIf he gets to Bute House, then we will be prepared to be grown up and work on an issue-by-issue, budget-by-budget basis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has predicted his party is poised to take a \u201cbig step forward\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[116245,748,1102,264145,33,4884,210591,264146,285,712,107941,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-946185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-alex-cole-hamilton","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-edinburgh-northern","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-holyrood-election","15":"tag-liam-mcarthur","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-scottish-liberal-democrats","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116539306186223593","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}