Scottish Labour’s Michael Shanks has won the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection in an overwhelming victory over the SNP that the party leadership declared “seismic”, and a clear demonstration that Scotland could lead the way in delivering a Labour government at Westminster at the coming general election.
In a result that exceeded Scottish Labour expectation, Shanks beat his closest rival, the SNP’s Katy Loudon, by 17,845 votes to 8,399 – a majority of 9,446 and a resounding swing of over 20%.
the Scottish Conservative candidate lost his deposit on the night
You love to see it
That’s not to say there aren’t loads of Tories. Just that they almost all tactically voted for Labour to get the SNP out.
If only 80s or even 90s Britain could see Scottish politics now. They would wonder wtf is going on, with Tory/Labour tactical voting and coalitions.
Great result, but winning back a seat they last held in the 2017-19 parliament (and whose predecessor seats were Labour from 1964 and 1970 respectively until 2015) is not really seismic.
Mm, a swing of 20% is still a big swing - no?
It is, but the history of the seat suggests it’s the sort of seat a Labour Party on the up should be winning without difficulty - even Corbyn won it in 2017. So I don’t see it as something on the scale of Somerton and Frome, or Tiverton and Honiton, or North Shropshire, or if either the Lib Dems or Labour were to win in Mid-Bedfordshire.
I have to presume tactical voting was rife, plugging these figures into a Scotland electoral calculus with their most recent national figures suggests the SNP would be completely wiped out in Scotland. I’m not convinced things are that bad for them yet. Still, I think Labour are likely to take a majority of Scottish seats.
Curtis on the radio this morning was saying that labour would most likely get half the seats.
That does make their task at the next election a lot easier.
Full results, with major parties in bold (with apologies to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of India):
- Gloria Adebo (Scottish Liberal Democrats) - 895 (2.9%)
- Bill Bonnar (Scottish Socialist Party) - 271
- Garry Cooke (Independent) - 6
- Andrew Daly (Independent) - 81
- Cameron Eadie (Scottish Greens) - 601 (2%)
- Prince Ankit Love, Emperor of India - 34
- Niall Fraser (Scottish Family Party) - 319
- Ewan Hoyle (Volt UK) - 46
- Thomas Kerr (Scottish Conservatives) - 1,192 (3.9%)
- Katy Loudon (SNP) - 8,399 (27.6%)
- Chris Sermanni (Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) - 178
- Michael Shanks (Scottish Labour) - 17,845 (58.6%)
- David Stark (Reform UK) - 403
- Colette Walker (Independence for Scotland Party) - 207
Result: Labour gain from the SNP.
with apologies to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of India
I had to Google to make sure shit wasn’t being made up, but no, he actually calls himself the emperor of India.
You know the saying: the road to India runs through Rutherglen and Hamilton West*.
*No need to google this, which I did make up.
The SNP is holed below the waterline. Losing two to one is not something you walk away from. I expect that the next Holyrood elections in 2026 will return a Labour, or Labour-Tory unionist coalition, government.
There are some reasons why the result in this particular seat would be worse than the general trend (covid rule breaking etc) but still, that’s an absolute rinsing.
Pretty striking stuff. It will be interesting to see to what extent Labour can hold together this broad coalition once a general election is underway and they need to take a clear position on things like Scottish independence.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In a result that exceeded Scottish Labour expectation, Shanks beat his closest rival, the SNP’s Katy Loudon, by 17,845 votes to 8,399 – a majority of 9,446 and a resounding swing of over 20%.
But Yousaf added that the “circumstances of this byelection were always very difficult for us” – the contest was triggered after constituents voted for the Covid rule-breaking former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier to be removed from her seat.
During the campaign Shanks, a modern studies teacher at a local high school, said people were desperate for “a fresh start” following years of limbo with Ferrier, who sat as an independent after she was suspended from the SNP.
Both candidates centred their campaigns around the cost of living crisis, with Shanks attacking the SNP government at Holyrood’s record on public services and Loudon accusing UK Labour of “colluding” with Tory policies like the two-child benefit cap.
Polls suggest the SNP’s dominance is diminishing as the party struggles with questions of transparency and governance linked to the police investigation into its financial conduct, with Labour the beneficiary.
With no clear route to a second independence referendum and the public overwhelmed by cost of living concerns, there are strong indications that Scottish voters are now less likely to choose which party to back based on their constitutional preferences.
The original article contains 654 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
