POLLING stations in Scotland have opened in the General Election.
Voters will cast their ballots on Thursday in the first UK-wide vote since 2019, with Labour tipped to win the keys to 10 Downing Street.
Polling places are open from 7am to 10pm, with results expected in the early hours of Friday.
The outlook is much less clear in Scotland, with Labour looking to end more than a decade of SNP domination at Westminster.
John Swinney’s (below) party won 48 seats in 2019, while the Tories took six and the Liberal Democrats four.
Labour was reduced to a single MP.
Keir Starmer’s party – led in Scotland by Anas Sarwar – has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years against a backdrop of turmoil for the Conservatives, putting Labour in pole position this time around.
Scotland boasts a number of the more intriguing battles in this election, including the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat.
Embattled outgoing Tory leader Douglas Ross is contesting the seat in the stead of former MP David Duguid – who was barred by Conservative bosses due to ill health – but he will not be facing a candidate backed by Labour.
Andy Brown – who was due to stand for the party – was suspended and stripped of support after reports of controversial social media posts, which he denies.
Glasgow could also become one of the major stories, with the city dropping from seven seats in the previous Parliament to six due to boundary changes.
Scotland’s biggest city was a Labour stronghold for decades before it lost all of its seats there in 2015 as it struggled to hold on to the unionist vote in Scotland, meaning Glasgow could become a battleground as the party seeks to win some seats back from the SNP.
The leaders of Scotland’s parties are expected to be among those casting their votes on Thursday, with First Minister John Swinney set to do so near his Perthshire home and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to vote in the south side of Glasgow.
Ross will cast his ballot in the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat he is contesting, while Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton will head to a polling place in Edinburgh.
The co-leaders of the Scottish Greens, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, will cast their votes in Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively.
