THE Wee County's Labour candidate is looking back at last weekend's Scottish Parliament elections with positivity in mind.

While Craig Miller was unable to secure the Clackmannanshire and Dunblane seat, he admitted this was always going to be unlikely.

However, he explained the party has come a long way in the Wee County since the campaign started, performing twice as good as opinion polls initially predicted.

Mr Miller, who secured 23.7 per cent of all votes cast, told the Advertiser: "We increased the number of votes we had from five years ago, we had our best performance in Clackmannanshire for a number of years and that means that it's looking very positive that we will increase our seats next year at the council.

"We started the year at 12 per cent in the polls, the likelihood of us taking the seat was very low, very low indeed.

"We ended up with just under 24 per cent in Clackmannanshire and Dunblane; considering where we were 10 weeks ago, we almost doubled our polling so the road to recovery has well and truly started."

While Craig missed out on a seat, his party secured 52,626 votes in the Mid Scotland and Fife region and his colleagues Clair Baker and Alex Rowley have been re-elected from the list.

Covid-19 meant the campaign trail had to be more restricted this year, but Craig felt that he managed to reach out to people.

He said: "For the first time in a long time we feel very positive that people are listening to us again and we want to continue that dialogue.

"We realise we still have a way to go, but in terms of where we were we are very pleased with how voters are now interacting with us and giving us a second chance."

While he has no firm plans yet when it comes to his next steps in politics, Craig confirmed he will remain committed to the Labour Party.

Craig wanted to thank all who voted in support and paid tribute to his campaign team, in particular election agent Margaret Brooks.