Trounced Labour Party candidate in Stirling Mary Kate Ross this week apologised for an election night rant on social media.
Ms Ross, a 19-year-old Stirling University student of history and politics, was both voting and standing in her first General Election.
But it was a night of bitter disappointment both nationally and here in Stirling for Labour with its share of the vote plunging from 22 per cent in 2017 to 8.1 per cent last week.
And it was about 4am on Friday , less than an hour after the result was declared, that Ms Ross made ill-judged comments during a student group chat.
She remarked “mental how I’ve done more than you’s in life and you all sat and slagged me off in this chat”.
Ms Ross went on to attack liberal voters saying: “(It) would be better if this chat wasn’t full of soaking wet liberals”. She then concluded her remarks saying: “You all moan about the world (and) are judgy as f*** towards everyone and b**** like f*** off. Just f*** off all of you.”
The group chat has over 100 members and was set up by University of Stirling politics students who are now in their second year. Many were voting for the first time.
Ms Ross polled 4275 votes as Alyn Smith secured victory on a glory night for the SNP in which Conservative Stephen Kerr, who had held the Stirling seat for two years, was ousted.
Mr Ross, whose father Michael Ross is a former North Lanarkshire councillor in Motherwell, later said: “I deeply regret making those comments in the group chat. It has been a stressful time for me as a young person in terms of my campaign and the backlash I have received. I sincerely and deeply apologise to everyone I made those comments to in a moment of heat.”
A Stirling Labour spokesperson said: “We could all learn a lesson from this about the perils of checking your smartphone in the wee small hours when you are tired, but Mary Kate realises her comments were completely unacceptable and she has apologised for them.”