Summary
The Scottish National Party obliterated its opponents, taking 56 of Scotland's 59 seats in the Westminster parliament.
This marked a spectacular gain from the six seats the SNP won in the last United Kingdom election in 2010 .
Scots voted against independence last September but the SNP, which led the drive, has surged in popularity since then and eclipsed the pro-union Labour Party, which has traditionally counted Scotland as a stronghold in Britain-wide elections.
There has been an overwhelming vote for Scotland to have a louder voice at Westminster and an overwhelming vote against continued austerity," she told the BBC.
She sidestepped a question about whether she would be making the case for another independence vote in the SNP manifesto for elections to the Scottish parliament next year.
The SNP rampage ousted the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, Jim Murphy, from parliament, and took former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's onetime stronghold in Kirkcaldy.
Since the referendum, many Scots have become disillusioned with Labour, seeing it as having moved too far away from the left.
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