The SNP's Keith Brown has been re-elected to serve as MSP for the Clackmannanshire and Dunblane constituency

The SNP stalwart increased his overall vote tally, as well as vastly stretching the majority with a strong showing across the constituency.

Mr Brown argued the result may well represent the "collapse" of the Labour vote in the Wee County.

Despite a fine victory in 2011, where he received 13,253 votes, the SNP candidate saw the number of his votes rise by almost 6.7 per cent to 14,147.

The majority – the difference from the second placed candidate – increased from 3,609 in 2011 to 6,721.

In his acceptance speech Mr Brown said: "I now have the privilege of serving another five-year term for this constituency – that would make it 14 years as an MSP.

"It is a privilege and one which I will never intend to take for granted. I very much enjoy the work and will not take the electorate, whether or not they voted for me, for granted."

He added: "I think the result here is quite remarkable...my principal opponents for many years has been the Labour party, but I can't remember a Labour party vote down at 25 per cent in the last 25 years.

"There is something fundamental happening in Scottish politics we'll have to see how that plays out over the coming weeks.

"Thank you very much to the people in Clackmannanshire and Dunblane for putting their faith in me and I intend to repay that faith by following through with the policies which I put forward and others my party has put forward."

Speaking with the Advertiser, after the declaration, Mr Brown said: "To increase the vote to probably a record high for the SNP in this area, and to massively increase the majority, is very gratifying.

"But also what I think we have seen is the collapse of the Labour vote to a record low. I can't remember, having stood for elections here for more than twenty years, Labour being as low as that.

"I think we might be witnessing the collapse of the Labour party in this area."
He added: "If you increase your majority, that does ten to encourage you to think that you are at least on the right track.

"And whether as a councillor or MSP, in every election I have so far managed to increase my majority and I am very gratified to have done that."

"The support of more than 14,000 people is very humbling and you have to realise that you serve as an MSP, or indeed a councillor, for everybody – for the whole electorate, whether they voted for you or not.

"I have always taken a principled approach and I'll continue to do that and to put the people first.

"And if you forget that, and get yourself too involved in other things, then you're going to come a cropper.

"It is my intention never to forget who it is that's put me in the parliament in the first place."

"It was a phenomenal result in 2007; a phenomenal result in 2011, and it looks like we've managed to keep that going.

"As long as we keep on listening to people and keep on trying to act in their interests, then I think you have a good chance of getting their support.

"We have a huge job to do in education, to try and close the attainment gap, and we're going to see increased investment in the NHS.

"I would personally like to see continued investment in the infrastructure of Scotland which was not provided over a period of decades.

"There's a lot to make up. And I think we've done a great job over the last few years so I'd like to see that continue.

"Myself and the SNP here fought really hard to get the Alloa-Stirling link and there is a challenge now with the closure of Longannet.

"So let's look at that [Alloa-Kincardine link]. It's a very expensive thing to do; it's the most expensive form of infrastructure we have. But let's look at that and I think we could commit ourselves to a study, and see what that would involve. And if it's right, then we should do that."