KENNETH Gibson romped to a third term in the Scottish Parliament with over 50 per cent of the votes cast in the Cunninghame North constituency.

The SNP MSP, who gathered 16,587 votes, left his rivals trailing with the Conservatives and Jamie Greene surprisingly coming in second place with 7,863 and Johanna Baxter coming in third place for Labour with just 6,735 votes.

Charity Pierce of the Liberal Democrats, who didn’t attend the count at St Matthew’s Academy in Saltcoats, received just 780 votes as they came last for the third Scottish Parliament in a row.

Speaking after the results were read out, Kenneth Gibson said he was delighted to be returned again to the Scottish Parliament and receive more than half the votes cast.

Kenneth, husband of SNP MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, Patricia Gibson, said: “We have been advancing over the years and that is difficult when you have been in power for so long and I think that it shows that we don’t take people for granted and we’re not arguing for second place, we are looking to lead Scotland and take Cunninghame North and the communities within it forward.

“The priorities of Cunninghame North will be inward investment through job creation, exports improving our education system, ensuring that our NHS continues to be well funded, ensuring the integration of health and social care is delivered effectively but the big infrastructure projects are the Dalry Bypass, the new schools that are being built, the new harbour in Brodick.

“There are a lot of things that are actually happening to take this constituency forward and a lot of them will come to fruition over the next couple of years.”

Jamie Greene, who is expected to be elected for the Conservative Party on the West Region list, was upbeat and said: “I’m absolutely thrilled, I really wasn’t sure how it would go tonight, I knew we would do OK, I knew we would have a couple of percent increase but to nearly double my vote and to overtake Labour as the second biggest party in Cunninghame North is a huge achievement and a real testament to all the work from my team over the last year and a half.”

Johanna Baxter, who focussed her campaign around the ferry tendering process in the local area, said after the results were read out: “It’s a very sobering night for the Labour Party not just in Cunninghame North but across the country and it’s important that we learn the lessons of that and that we earn the trust of the people again and I’ll be at the forefront of that.

The official breakdown of votes was:

Kenneth Gibson (Scottish National Party) - 16,587 (52%)

Jamie Greene (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party) - 7,863 (25%)

Johanna Baxter (Scottish Labour Party) - 6,735 (21%)

Charity Pierce (Scottish Liberal Democrats) - 780 (2%)