Labour has achieved a surprising victory in the Holyrood by-election, capturing the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse seat from the SNP.
The win comes despite Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney having declared the contest to be a two-horse race between the SNP and Nigel Farage’s Reform.
But when the votes were counted Labour’s Davy Russell came ahead of both parties, with SNP candidate Katy Loudon second, narrowly ahead of Ross Lambie of Reform UK.
The SNP comfortably won the seat at Holyrood at the last Scottish Parliament election, with Christina McKelvie having a majority of over 4,500 in 2021.
The by-election was held after the death earlier this year of the Scottish Government minister.
Reform UK sources expected the party to come third in the by-election and both Labour and the SNP feared a possible surge for the seat from Nigel Farage’s group.
But after two hours of counting in the seat, the party is likely to come third, with the source saying they expect to be close to Labour in second place, with the SNP retaining the seat.
The results will be concerning for SNP leader Mr Swinney - who made several visits to the area during the campaign - but the victory will be seen as a boost for Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s bid to become Scotland’s next first minister.
Speaking to LBC after the result Mr Sarwar said: “This time two years ago we won here for Rutherglen and set the pathway to win in Scotland for the General Election and I believe the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse have laid the first stone in the path to electing a Scottish Labour government next year.
“The message they have sent is they do want a UK Labour govt to move more quickly to demonstrate an improvement in their lives, they’ve had enough of this SNP govt who have done so much damage to our country over 18 years, and they’ve rejected the divisive politics of Nigel Farage and Reform.
“Look at the spectre of a First Minister who only had one thing to offer - vote SNP to stop Farage, there was no positive offer and all that did was push people towards Reform and use it to try and undermine the Labour party, and I think he’s proven to make himself look quite foolish in the end that he tried to say it was just a two horse race. Reform is a distraction and the risk of voting for them is they help the SNP stay in power.”
However with Reform never having won an election in Scotland, party deputy leader Richard Tice said coming third in the contest was a "massive boost".
He insisted: "We’re thrilled to bits, absolutely delighted."
He told LBC: “We were delighted to be within a few hundred votes of the SNP who were favourites to win and it gives us massive momentum in the next 11 months to the Holyrood elections.
“Voters voted in this constituency who never voted before and they voted Reform. It was also a good turnout which shows engagement which is a good thing for democracy.
“We’re the new kids on the block, we keep learning and gathering data and information, this will give us huge momentum and enthusiasm and a sense of belief and encouragement for Reform across the UK.”
Asked if his party would survive til the next Holyrood elections given the resignation of its chairman Zia Yusuf, he said: “Huge thanks to Zia, we’re very sad to see him go, he worked incredibly hard, but we’ve got great momentum and we’re pushing on. We’re like an entrepreneurial start up, like a teenager coming up to our 21st in political terms, we’re here to stay.
“Zia made his decision, he told Nigel, I’ve sent him a message of thanks. Politics is brutal, it’s a tough game.”
Asked if it was wrong of Reform chairman Zia Yusuf to ask a question of banning burqas in PMQs he said: “It was absolutely right. We should discuss important issues, The idea that it’s wrong to raise an issue… we should have a debate, it may not be for us, but let’s talk about it.
"Particularly women, is it misogynistic, is it repressive? These are important issues we should have a debate about in a calm and respectful way, rather than smear and label people and say you can’t talk about that.”
SNP MSP Jamie Hepburn told LBC that the result was “disappointing”. “We had a fantastic candidate and we worked hard, we hoped we would do better but we haven’t. There are things we need to learn from that and that’s what we’ll do.
“We did have a focus on the Labour party as well, and its vote has declined as well, so there are lessons for more than us to learn.”
On Reform he said: “People are feeling scunnered, and we understand that as a government - we will bring back a winter fuel payment, we’re investing in the NHS and into local government, so we will continue to do that and frankly I’m proud of the fact we tried to take Reform head on and if they’re going to continue to be a presence in Scottish politics that is what we will continue to do.”
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