THE General Election proved to be third time unlucky for the Liberal Democrats’ Clacks candidate Iliyan Stefanov, who lost out on becoming MP yet again.

The cheerful Queen Margaret University employee previously contested the seat in 2015 and 2017 – but was unsuccessful.

And today (Friday, December 13) history repeated itself once again, as he received 3,204 votes – more than 23,000 behind winner John Nicolson.

However, he was nearly 3,000 votes ahead of UKIP candidate Stuart Martin.

But Mr Stefanov was gracious in defeat, and used his speech after the result to thank all those involved in the election and the count.

He thanked his own team too, and had people chuckling when he said: “We [the Lib Dems] have improved the result – in a few more elections we may actually win someday.”

He then said: “Congratulations to John for winning; we have a strong voice in Parliament now, but we also lost a very strong voice.

“I hope Luke continues working for the constituency, and we will all be looking at John [to] deliver on [his] promises.”