Luke Graham loses seat after two years as MP

Mr Graham became the first ever Conservative representative for the constituency after taking it from the SNP in the 2017 snap election.

However, this time around, despite earning around the same number of votes as he did in the previous election, he lost out to John Nicolson by 4,498 votes.

Speaking to the Advertiser in the aftermath of the result, Mr Graham said: “It’s very disappointing.

“You can see that our vote held pretty much constant which is good.

“There’s been a lot of movement, I think more Labour went to SNP than we were hoping for and it just shows this is a very fluid seat that’s changed hands a lot in the last five years.

“I think most people would accept I worked as hard as I could [over] the past two years to try and deliver for Clackmannanshire and Perth and Kinross.”

Asked if he expected the result given the exit poll - which predicted a huge Conservative win - Mr Graham said: “I wasn’t expecting it until the exit poll then that did seem to indicate [a Conservative win].

“It was quite close but as some of the boxes started to come through, I could see we were a bit short.

“There’s lots to build on and there’s 22,000 plus people who gave me the confidence of their vote and so I will still try and serve them in whatever way I can.”

After the results were announced, Mr Graham was gracious in defeat and congratulated John Nicolson before adding: “I’m his constituent now so I know where to go with my problems.”

Asked how he would like to be remembered, Mr Graham said: “[I’d like people to remember] the investment secured for Perth and Clackmannanshire and the number of people me and my team have been able to help.

“It is about being positive and being proactive and trying to get things done rather than just shouting down at people in the House of Commons and that’s what I’ve tried to do for the last two years.”