THE GUARDIAN: Salmond leads party to series of dramatic victories over Labour and Lib Dems, resulting in a majority in the Scottish parliament
The Scottish National party has won a majority in the Holyrood elections – a dramatic result that will allow its leader, Alex Salmond, to hold a historic referendum on independence for Scotland.
After a series of astonishing victories over Labour and a collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote, the SNP leader saw a landslide for his party take it beyond the 65-seat mark. Holyrood has 129 seats.
After a night of defeats for some of Labour's best-known figures and a near defeat for the Scottish Labour leader, Iain Gray, Salmond declared he would stage an independence referendum within five years.
Jubilant at the "historic" scale of the SNP's victories, he added that he would first demand much greater economic freedom for the Scottish parliament, including the right to set its own corporation tax and increase borrowing powers to £5bn. Then he would hold his referendum.
"Just as the Scottish people have restored trust in us, we must trust the people as well," he declared. "Which is why, in this term of the parliament, we will bring forward a referendum and trust the people on Scotland's own constitutional future." » | Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent | Friday, May 06, 2011
