VOTERS went to the polls in Aberdeen South and Arbroath and Brought Ferry by-elections today after their MPs resigned to take their seats in Holyrood.

The by-elections in Scotland were sparked by the SNP’s former Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and colleague Stephen Gethins’ election as MSPs last month.

Both have since walked straight into government, with Mr Flynn widely touted as a future SNP leader and first minister.

In Aberdeen, the contest has been dominated by the question of the North Sea’s future and whether new licences to drill for oil and gas should be granted to save jobs.

Despite pressure from the Greens’ candidate Jorg Shelton Eckstein to oppose new licences, the SNP candidate and former MP Richard Thomson has held to their “case-by-case” line.

Labour candidate and former oil and gas engineer Nurul Hoque Ali has argued that running the sector down is “not the answer” and rivals in Tory Douglas Lumsden and Reform’s Jo Hart take the Trumpian “drill baby drill” approach.

The cost of living has been the focus on the doorsteps of Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, however, where lawyer and SNP adviser Lara Bird is favourite to retain the seat for the party against the challenges of local Labour councillor Heather Doran, the Scottish Tories’ Jack Cruickshanks, Reform’s Bill Reid and Tanvir Ahmad of the Liberal Democrats.

Unlike the recent Holyrood elections when counts did not begin until the day after polling, ballots will be counted from the close of the polls at 10pm, with results expected in the early hours of this morning.