The SNP gave Labour a bloody nose in Chancellor Gordon Brown's home patch of Mid Scotland and Fife with a series of impressive wins. Referred to as Scotland in miniature because of the region's share of all the country's political battles, the Nationalists won five of the nine seats with the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats taking two each.

In the regional list Labour fared slightly better, picking up three seats to the SNP's one. The Conservative Party also picked up three seats.

Mr Brown's ill-judged intervention in the Westminster by-election for Dunfermline and West Fife last year provided an indicator that once solid Labour votes in the region could no longer be counted on.

In that case, it was vulnerable to Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie, appealing to the newcomers in new-build estates around the royal burgh. Last night, it was the SNP who benefited.

The first shock came with the loss of Fife Central, which was particularly galling for Labour. Christine May had held the seat, but her majority of 2762 from 2003 was overturned by the SNP's Tricia Marwick, who polled 11,920, giving her a majority of 1166. "I'm the first SNP parliamentary candidate elected in my beloved kingdom of Fife and I'm so honoured by that," she said in her acceptance speech.

Shortly afterwards came news that the SNP had also won Stirling from Labour, in one of the night's other big shocks.

Stirling used to be a highly marginal Tory-held seat at Westminster, until Michael Forsyth lost it to Labour's Anne McGuire 10 years ago.

With a majority over the Tories of 2880 votes in 2003, Sylvia Jackson for Labour was justified in treating this as a marginal - and so it proved.

Nationalist Bruce Crawford, who has eight years' experience in the Scottish Parliament, but who came third at the last election, snatched the seat from Ms Jackson, emerging with a majority of 620.

Mrs McGuire couldn't hide the frustration of another seat lost. She said: "I am deeply disappointed. It is not a good result for the Labour Party. I know that all my colleagues there will be deeply disappointed.

"Bruce Crawford is not an unknown quantity in Stirling. He's an MSP on the list for that part of the country so he's obviously built up a local profile. We fought a good campaign and a worthy campaign and we'll obviously have to reflect on it over the next few weeks."

Another satisfying victory for the SNP was to hold Ochil, which had been tipped as toughest battle in the region with the SNP defending a slender majority of just 296.

The Nationalists were worried because they managed to snatch the seat from Labour last time thanks to the immense popularity of their former candidate George Reid, a local boy from Tullibody who represented the area at Westminster for five years during the 1970s. This time around Mr Reid, Presiding Officer of the last Parliament, decided not to stand and Labour were determined to recapture the turf.

However, the SNP's former Clackmannanshire council leader Keith Brown, a popular figure locally, managed to cling on to the seat with a majority of just 490, defeating Labour's Brian Fearon, a native of Belfast and one-time education convener of the council.

Another significant SNP result was in Perth where sitting candidate Roseanna Cunningham was facing a tough battle with the Conservatives. She was run close in 2003, leaving a majority of only 727 votes and many pundits thought Perth was the Conservatives' best prospect for a gain north of the central belt, which is why David Cameron made a high-profile visit in the run-up to polling day. However, on the night, Ms Cunningham increased her majority, with a swing from the Tories.

The SNP also won the relatively safe seat of Tayside North were former Nationalist leader John Swinney also increased his majority.

Labour's bad night got even worse with the Liberal Democrats taking Dunfermline West with a 20% increase in their share of the vote.

Scott Barrie, who had been the Labour MSP for the area, saw his majority of 4080 from the 2003 election overturned by the LibDems. Jim Tolson, who was fourth last time round, snatched the seat with 9952 votes, giving him a majority of 476 over Mr Barrie, who polled 9476. The LibDems also held on to Fife North East with Iain Smith regaining his seat.

Labour managed to hang on in Dunfermline East and Kirkcaldy despite swings of more than 8% in support of the SNP in both seats.

On the regional list trade union official John Park, Claire Brennan-Baker, wife of North-East MSP Richard Simpson, and former Deputy Justice Minister Richard Simpson were elected for Scottish Labour, Murdo Fraser, Elizabeth Smith and Ted Brocklebank were successful for the Scottish Tories and the SNP's Chris Harvie, after a long exile as a professor of nationalism in Germany, was also returned, promising to be one of the new parliament's more colourful participants.

12:01am Saturday 5th May 2007

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