There has been very encouraging news from Scotland today. If you had told us at the start of the campaign that we would gain TWENTY seats, we would accused you of being wildly optimistic.

So far we are up 6 seats in Edinburgh, doubling the size of our group.

Sanne Djikstra-Downie wins in Forth ward in Edinburgh:

Longstanding councillor Dobbie Aldridge is joined by Ed Thornley in Drum Brae/Gyle.

It was pretty audacious to put up 3 candidates in a 4 member ward, even if in 2017 Kevin Lang won with the highest ever vote of any councillor in Scotland. But it paid off and Kevin and his sister Louise Young are now joined by Lewis Younie who takes a seat from the Tories.

And we get two in the three member ward of Corstorphine/Murrayfield  with two new councillors, Al Beal and Euan Davidson.

Wins for Jack Caldwell in Leith Walk and Pauline Flannery in Southside/Newington complete our sextet of gains.

In Dunfermline, Aude Boubaker-Calder regained the Dunfermline Central and Crossford ward. She had come so close in a by-election in 2019, losing out by a handful of votes. Her husband James regained his Dunfermline South seat and they both topped the poll.

Elsewhere in Fife, we gained councillors in both St Andrews and the Howe of Fife. Al Clark and Gaz Holt join Jane Ann Liston and Donald Lothian. We’ve also gained Eugene Clark in Leven Kennoway and Largo. Fiona Corps and Sean Dillon make it two in East Neuk and Landward. The total number of gains in Fife increased to 6 with John Caffrey joining Mags Kennedy in Cupar.

In the Highlands, we’ve gained one Councillor, David Gregg, in Inverness and Molly Nolan, who put up a strong fight in Caithness and Ross in last year’s Scottish Parliament elections wins in the Cromarty Firth ward. We’ve also consolidated last year’s by-election win in Wick and East Caithness with Jan McEwan. Gains in Thurso (Ron Gunn), Fort William and Ardnamurchan (Angus MacDonald) mean that we have councillors from the top of the Highlands to the bottom.

We’ve gained one seat in Aberdeen City with Desmond Bouse winning George Street/Harbour ward.

And it would be fair to say that there had been some anxiety about how our vote in Aberdeenshire would hold up. The loss of our regional MSP in a former heartland hit hard last year.  However, we are making gains, with Colin Simpson in Peterhead South and Cruden and Ann Bell in Fraserburgh and District.

We’ve gained two seats in Dundee. Daniel Coleman, who lost out narrowly in 2017 won in Strathmartine ward. Michael Crichton joins Fraser Macpherson in City Centre Ward and Craig Duncan holds in Broughty Ferry.

And in the Borders, Hannah Steel, granddaughter of David, wins in Galashiels.

We also gained Claire McLaren in the Strathtay ward of  Perth and Kinross.

West Lothian Council gets its first ever Liberal Democrat. Linlithgow bookshop owner  and it’s a bloody marvellous bookshop) Sally Pattle took the third seat in a three member ward from the Tories.

Another gain in South Lanarkshire as Norman Rae joins veteran Councillor Robert Brown. Sadly Paul McGarry just missed out in East Kilbride.

One sad result is that Ben Lawrie, our fantastic young councillor in Angus and spokesperson for tackling the Drugs Death emergency, lost his seat to Labour.

As of 5pm the BBC has the state of play in Scotland as follows:

Lib Dems: 83 (+21)

Labour 275 (+18)

SNP 434 (+23)

Con 202 (-61)

Green 34 (+15)

Independent 148 (-17)

Here’s Scottish Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton talking earlier to the BBC

Party leader Alex Cole-Hamilton says he is "over the moon” the Scottish Lib Dems are picking up seats in the Scottish elections#BBCElections | https://t.co/Db47Ol3HxD pic.twitter.com/fE1rAkw4oV

— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) May 6, 2022