Watchdog to look into general election result delay

The Electoral Commission is to look into a count of votes that continued into Saturday as part of routine research of the running of 2024 UK general election.

Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire was the last seat in the UK to declare its result, after votes were counted three times.

The delay was blamed on a discrepancy between the verified votes total and the provisional number of counted votes.

The commission, an independent body which oversees elections, said it hoped to "understand the experiences" of UK voters and electoral staff.

Liberal Democrat candidate Angus MacDonald won the seat after receiving 18,159 votes.

The SNP's Drew Hendry was in second place with 15,999 votes.

Mr Hendry conceded defeat before the ballot papers were counted for a final time.

The outcome had originally been expected at about 05:00 on Friday, but there was a recount before candidates were told the votes would need to be counted again on Saturday.

Highland Council, which ran the count in Dingwall, said a debrief would be held as "standard practice".

The Electoral Commission said: "We were in contact with the returning officer at Highland Council to provide guidance, and an Electoral Commission representative attended the count on Saturday."

It added: “As we do after every election, we will be undertaking research with voters and electoral administrators across the UK to understand their experiences at the general election and will publish a report.”