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Labour’s by-election victory in Rutherglen and Hamilton West puts it on course to become the “dominant” party in Scotland again, polling guru Prof John Curtice has said.
In the end, the party’s candidate Michael Shanks won 17,845 votes, out of a total of 30,531 cast and the margin of a 20 per cent victory was twice what pundits had predicted. Out of an electorate of 82,104, some 37.19 per cent turned out to cast a vote.
Sir John Curtice told BBC Scotland News it was a “remarkably good result” for Sir Keir Starmer’s party, adding: “If this kind of swing were to be replicated across Scotland as a whole you’d be talking about the Labour Party quite clearly being the dominant party north of the border.”
Mr Starmer hailed the “seismic result” for the party.
The contest was triggered by the ousting of former SNP Margaret Ferrier, who was found to have broken Covid rules when she travelled between Glasgow and London after testing positive for the virus during lockdown in 2020.
With his party commanding a large lead in national polling, Labour’s candidate Michael Shanks was expected to come out on top against the SNP’s Katy London and the Conservative Party hopeful Thomas Kerr.
