Tommy Sheppard tipped for political promotion

Stand comedy club owner Tommy Sheppard is being tipped as the next SNP Commons leader after retaining his Edinburgh East seat for the SNP.

His majority was slashed from 9,106 to 3,425 last night, following a swing towards Labour.

However, the SNP’s former Westminster group leader, Angus Robertson, lost his Moray seat to the Tories. He is also the party’s overall deputy leader.

After the results were announed, BBC Scotland political journalist tweeted: ‘Tommy Sheppard has held Edinburgh East for the SNP. Could he be their Westminster group leader tomorrow?’

The SNP now have 35 Westminster MPS, down from the 56 they took in their phenomenal 2010 victory in Scotland.

Sheppard yesterday polled 18,509 votes compared to 15,084 for Labour’s Patsy King; 8,081 for Tory Katie Mackie and 1,849 for Lib Dem Tristian Gray.

After the count, he tweeted: ‘Scotland's capital officially a Tory free zone.’ The SNP retained three of the four city seats it held, but lost Edinburgh West to the Lib Dems, while Labour held Edinburgh South.

Sheppard became an MP at the 2015 election taking the seat from Labour with a 49 per cent of the vote. His share this time was 42.5 per cent.

He came second to Robertson in the race to become Nicola Sturgeon’s No 2 at the party’s conference last October.

Sheppard, who was once a Labour councillor, is a director of Salt N Sauce Promotions which runs the Stand comedy clubs in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle and the Glasgow International Comedy Festival, as well as a number of smaller events. Other directors include Frankie Boyle, Miles Jupp and Fred MacAulay.

Published: 9 Jun 2017