SCOTTISH Labour candidate Craig Miller was disappointed by last night's Scottish Parliament election results and said the party needs to look at where it can improve in the future.

The young politician contested the Clackmannanshire and Dunblane constituency seat and said he felt like he had a good campaign in the run up to the big day, but was ultimately defeated by re-elected SNP MSP Keith Brown.

He received just below 25 per cent of the votes cast with 7426 electors behind him; however, MSP Brown was elected with 14,147 people supporting him at just over 47 per cent.

Following the count at Alloa Town Hall, Craig Miller told the Advertiser: “I'm relieved that it's over; obviously disappointed with the result. We had a very good, positive campaign, but the voters decided that I wasn't what they were wanting today, they have supported the SNP once again.

“Obviously, we were in this election to try and win. It was always going to be difficult, the polls [said] we were 30 points behind, [but] we are not 30 points behind in Clackmannanshire and Dunblane and some of our areas we did remarkably well. In other areas we were disappointed.

“So, we will just have to look where we can improve and make sure that we do for the future.”

In his concession speech, he thanked all of those involved in the election and the count and admitted last night had been difficult for the Scottish Labour party across the country.

He added: “I genuinely believe that we had the best policies put forward, but unfortunately the voters didn't agree.

“We will spend the next 12 months trying to listen to the voters once again and come back stronger.

“But equally, we have had a strong team, a strong campaign that is focused on local issues.”

He also thanked his “fantastic team” and concluded: “I will work with Keith and anyone else to try to make Clackmannanshire and Dunblane the better place that it really does deserve to be.”