THE Scottish Tories have won their first Westminster by-election in Scotland in five decades after taking Aberdeen South today following a collapse in SNP support.

Sparked by former SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn being elected to Holyrood last month, the campaign in the capital of Britain’s oil and gas industry was dominated by the question of whether to issue new drilling licences.

Former Tory MP Douglas Lumsden turned a 3,758 SNP majority in 2024 into a 6,050 majority, consigning Labour to a distant fourth behind Reform after framing the election as a “referendum” on oil and gas.

Hailing his “seismic victory,” Mr Lumsden said “we have won that referendum on oil and gas,” while — apparently unaware that her party sold all UK state stakes in North Sea oil and gas decades ago — Tory leader Kemi Badenoch crowed: “The people of Aberdeen sent a message on behalf of the whole country. 

“Energy security is national security. They know it is common sense to use our own oil and gas rather than importing it from overseas.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The Aberdeen South result is a direct result of failed Labour policies on oil and gas, which have been an abject failure.

“The tin-eared approach to the concerns of workers, by letting go of one rope before we have hold of another, has been absolutely shameful. 

“Unite will not accept a jobless transition. Until there is a credible plan for jobs the anti-North Sea policies must be consigned to the bin.”

GMB Scotland secretary Louise Gilmour called it “entirely predictable” that a Tory would win the by election by promising to protect the North Sea.

She said: “The only thing more predictable is ministers at Westminster and Holyrood continuing to promise green jobs tomorrow while thousands of well-paid, highly skilled workers in oil and gas are being abandoned today.

“Their rushed and needless rundown of the North Sea is continuing despite an industrial catastrophe unfolding in plain sight. This result must be a wake-up call.

In Scotland’s other by-election — this time caused by Stephen Gethins resigning his seat to become an MSP — lawyer and political adviser Lara Bird comfortably held on to Arbroath and Broughty Ferry for the SNP with a 4,841 margin over Reform’s Bill Reid.