Labour has claimed a surprised by-election win in the Scottish Parliament seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.
Labour candidate Davy Russell secured 8,559 votes, ahead of the SNP’s Katy Loudon on 7,957, in the by-election which was called following the death of the SNP’s Christina McKelvie.
Meanwhile, there was a surge of support for Reform, with their candidate Ross Lambie finished third on 7,088 votes, ahead of the Tories in fourth with 1,621.
The SNP had been expected to retain the seat, but many had reckoned the vote was difficult to predict.
With less than a year until the Scottish Parliament election, the Hamilton result was seen as being a key indicator of how the major parties can expect to fare.
In a post on X congratulating Russell, 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.”
Whilst Labour’s victory was a surprise, it’s the Reform vote that has caught the attention of many pollsters. Mark Diffley, of the Edinburgh-based Diffley Partnership, told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland: “The real surprise here was the size of the Reform vote at 26%.
“That mirrors what they have got at some local council by-elections this year and the national polling has them about 19% at the moment.”
The build-up to the vote had been dominated by a bitter fallout between Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Reform’s Nigel Farage.
This revolved around false claims Reform and Farage made about a 2022 speech from Sarwar, with Labour and the SNP saying accusing Farage’s party of ‘racism.’
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