Scottish Labour is celebrating an “incredible” win in a pivotal Holyrood byelection, beating the incumbent SNP and fighting off Reform UK’s “racist” campaigning.
The result confounded predictions and will boost the Labour Party ahead of next year’s Scottish parliamentary elections.
Voters in the central Scotland seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse rallied round the popular local candidate, Davy Russell, after a toxic campaign during which Nigel Farage launched an unprecedented series of personal attacks on the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, labelled racist by the SNP leader, John Swinney.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Russell told jubilant supporters: “This community has sent a message to Farage and his mob: the poison of Reform isn’t us, it isn’t Scotland and we don’t want your division here.”
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Posting on social media on Friday morning, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said people in Scotland “have once again voted for change”.
“Next year there is a chance to turbo-charge delivery by putting Labour in power on both sides of the border.”
The surprise win comes against the backdrop of national polls that placed Scottish Labour in third behind the SNP and Reform, with the party bearing the brunt of voter unhappiness with unpopular UK Labour polices.
The SNP had been the clear favourites to hold the seat after a fiercely contested campaign called after the sudden death of the popular SNP MSP Christina McKelvie from breast cancer, but were beaten into second place, with Reform UK following close behind in third.
As Reform seemingly gained ground from both the SNP and Scottish Labour in recent weeks, speculation grew that it might push Mr Sarwar’s party into third place.
But in the end, with a reasonably high turnout for a byelection of 44.2 per cent, Scottish Labour reaped the rewards of its highly targeted campaigning and well-organised get-out-the-vote operation to pull off an unexpected victory, winning with 8,559 votes.
The SNP’s Katy Loudon came second with 7,957 votes, narrowly beating Reform UK’s Ross Lambie on 7,888. The Scottish Conservatives were left trailing on 1,621 votes.
A buoyant Mr Sarwar said it was “an incredible night”, having proven the pundits, pollsters and bookies wrong.
He told reporters that voters had sent three strong messages: “First, people want a UK Labour government to go further and faster in improving their lives and I think that’s a clear message to them.
“Secondly, they’ve had enough of this SNP government: after 18 years they’ve let communities around the country down.
“Third, they’ve rejected the politics of Nigel Farage and Reform and today the people and Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse have laid the first stone in the pathway to a Scottish Labour government next year.”
Asked about the increasingly personal attacks he endured during the campaign, Mr Sarwar said: “Nigel Farage looks at someone like me and it goes against his values and it makes him angry. What the vast majority of people in Scotland see is someone who is one of their own, is a Scot and is working hard to change the country.”
Reform UK’s Richard Tice, who attended the count, insisted that his party was “thrilled to bits” with the result, and that third place still represented “a massive boost” for the party, which has gained momentum in Scotland since the general election.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday morning, he said: “It’s truly remarkable. We’ve come from nowhere to being in a three-way marginal, and we’re within 750 votes of winning that byelection and just a few hundred votes of defeating the SNP, so it’s an incredible result.” – Guardian
