Yesterday was the first election in my life that I went into the polling station entirely unsure of who I was going to vote for. Since 2010, I’ve voted in 12 elections and referendums and in each case, I knew well ahead of the vote which box (or boxes) my cross (or preferences) were going into. I’ve voted SNP and Labour and given preferences to all the main parties apart from the Conservatives, and in each case, I’ve voted positively for something.

Not this time. I’d describe my politics as broadly centre-left, like most Scots who have voted for Labour and the SNP over the past decade-and-a-half. I voted No in 2014 and Remain in 2016, and my views on the rights and wrongs of independence have swung over the past ten years as the political landscape has shifted, but the constitution isn’t a political priority for me. I’m precisely the kind of voter Labour wanted to win over yesterday, the SNP needed to retain, and both need to win in 2026. Yet I found myself utterly uninspired by either of them throughout the campaign.

In the end, I voted tactically like around a quarter of us who voted yesterday. I live in a seat contested primarily by the SNP and the Conservatives, which would have been decided by just a couple of thousand votes in 2019 had the new boundaries been in place. The notion of a narrow Conservative win here was enough to make my mind up for me in the voting booth.

Sir Keir Starmer (Image: free)

Hundreds of thousands of Scots who voted primarily to oust the Conservative UK Government will have done so by voting Labour, and that will have........

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