Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has declared that the party “blew the doors off” in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election to snatch the seat from the Scottish National Party (SNP). Speaking at a victory rally, Starmer said the win was the “first step on a very important journey” in Scotland and the rest of the UK. Labour’s Michael Shanks won the by-election, obtaining 17,845 votes, more than double that achieved by Katy Loudon, the SNP’s candidate, in the Westminster poll. There was also a swing of 20.4% from the SNP to Labour.
The by-election was called after former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier was expelled by her constituents for breaching Covid restrictions. During his victory speech, Starmer noted that voters had grown disenchanted with both the SNP government in Scotland and the Conservative government in Westminster. He argued that his party had undergone significant changes and was now the party of change. Meanwhile, Loudon’s 8,399 votes represented a 27.6% share, down by 16.6% on the SNP result at the 2019 general election.
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf said that there were “a number of difficult issues around this by-election which made it a very difficult night.” He argued that the actions of Ferrier and police investigations into SNP finances played into the poor result. Turnout for the vote was 37.19%, a significant fall from the 66.5% recorded at the last general election. Speaking to BBC News, Starmer promised to lay out Labour’s “positive case for change” at the party’s annual conference, noting that voters wanted a changed Labour party.
Starmer also used the opportunity to condemn Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over the cancellation of HS2 and the “circus” of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. Despite the success, the party faces an uphill battle across Scotland. Labour’s vote share fell by 8% in May’s Scottish parliamentary election. Labour had held Rutherglen until 2015 when it fell to the SNP. The victory was particularly significant since it marks the first time a party has taken a seat from another without the help of any boundary changes for over two decades
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