British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won a surprise victory yesterday in a fiercely fought by-election for the Scottish parliament, while support for the right-wing Reform UK party surged in a contest tainted by a row over racism.
After one of the most bitter election campaigns in Scotland, Labour won the seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse from the Scottish National Party after it became vacant following the death of a Scottish government minister.
The result provides some relief for Starmer, whose party has suffered a steep fall in support since its landslide victory in a British parliamentary election last year after it raised taxes, cut welfare benefits and got into a row over donations.
Voters rallied around Labour in the closely watched contest after Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, repeatedly referred to the ethnicity of the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who is of Pakistani heritage, drawing criticism from the other parties.
The Labour candidate Davy Russell won 31.6 per cent of votes in the election for the Scottish parliament, which has devolved powers over issues such as health and education. The SNP won 29.4pc votes and Reform finished third with 26.1pc votes.
The betting odds had predicted a comfortable victory for the SNP with Labour pushed into third place behind Reform.
Russell told his supporters in the area southeast of Glasgow that his victory had “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”.
But a recent rise in support for Reform – which has overtaken Labour in opinion polls as the most popular party in Britain – suggests it is making inroads in Scotland as well as England, a year before the Scottish parliament elections are held.
John Curtice, Britain’s most respected pollster, said although Labour had won an unexpected victory, the main takeaway from the result was the increase in support for Reform after the party won only 0.2pc of the vote at the last election for the Scottish parliament in 2021.
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