LABOUR candidate Joanne Ross was devastated after Conservative Luke Graham was elected in the Ochil and South Perthshire constituency.

She achieved 10, 847 votes, falling behind both the Tories and SNP candidate Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who lost her seat.

Ms Ross said: “I’m very disappointed obviously, I mean you don’t stand in an election and not want to win it.

“I would like to have won. The only comfort I can take is that nationally Labour seems to be doing a lot better.

“It’s devastating for me to have a Tory MP. I’ve never seen a Tory MP in this constituency in my lifetime.”

Ms Ross believes that fears of another independence referendum have forced local voters into showing support for the Conservative party.

She said: “I think Theresa May will be shaking Nicola Sturgeon’s hand because at the end of the day people were frightened of a referendum.

“I think the unionist [voters], some have gone Labour and some have gone Tory and unfortunately here, they’ve gone Tory.”

The Labour candidate admitted that the gains made by her party across the country provided a glimmer of hope amidst the disappointment of the count.

She said: “I’ll always be a socialist. I stood up and it’s a case of, I can go back to my job on Monday.

“It’s a job that I love but that’s one of the reasons I stood because I see cuts to council services and I wanted to get rid of Theresa May.

“So maybe the only comfort I can take is that we are doing well nationally and we might get rid of Theresa May.”

When the results were read out on the night, a chorus of cheers erupted for the candidate, who had put her heart and soul into the campaign.

Ms Ross said: “I think the cheers were for us because we fought a really hard campaign and we had no money. We were marginalised from the start.

“They said it was a two-horse race between the SNP and the Tories and we didn’t buy into that. We fought this election to try and win it and stand up for the working people, stand up for better conditions, a minimum wage and the end of the zero hour contract.

“All that stuff that’s in the manifesto, I’m 100 per cent behind it. It’s the best manifesto we’ve had in 100 years to take to people and actually it was really good to go out on the doorsteps and have something to sell to people.”