Liberal Democrats have won a by-election in Edinburgh, becoming the second largest party on the council.
Fiona Bennett was elected as the new councillor for Corstorphine /Murrayfield following the vote on Thursday (March 9).
The SNP failed to hold onto the seat following the resignation of former Lord Provost Frank Ross in December.
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Ms Bennett won comfortably, taking 55 per cent of first preference votes following the count held at Edinburgh Council’s city centre headquarters on Thursday night.
Reacting as the result was declared shortly after midnight, the newly-elected councillor, who is a caseworker for North East Fife MP Wendy Chamberlain, said she felt “very excited and overwhelmed” and was ready to “hit the ground running”.
In her victory speech she paid tribute to Mr Ross who she described as a “hard-working local councillor and a distinguished former Lord Provost”.
She added: “This is the highest number of votes our party has got in a council by-election either in Edinburgh or anywhere in Scotland. This is a major achievement and it propels us into now being the second biggest group on Edinburgh Council, behind only the SNP.”
The victory is two-fold for the Lib Dems, who now not only outnumber the minority Labour administration but also become the first party to ever hold all the seats in a single ward in the Capital since the introduction of the multi-member system in 2007, having won the other two last May.
The political fallout could be significant for Labour as they assume a weakened position in the City Chambers – just two weeks after they failed to get their budget through.
Tactical voting which foiled the administration’s budget at a chaotic meeting last month left a majority of councillors backing the Lib Dems against a joint SNP-Green bid. The result is likely to spark questions for the now second biggest group over whether they will look to seize power in the council or play more of a central role in the implementation of their spending and saving plans.
Lib Dem group leader Kevin Lang hailed the “historic result” and added Ms Bennett would be a “first-class councillor”.
He said: “It’s extraordinary progress in 12 months. This time last year the Lib Dems were the fifth largest party on the council.”
Cllr Lang added Lib Dem councillors would meet early next week “to consider how we can best use the increased presence that we’ve got in the council chamber”.
SNP candidate Donald Rutherford came second with 13.2% FPv followed by the Conservative’s Hugh Findlay with 9.5%.
The turnout was 42.3% with 8,225 of an electorate of 19,435 voting. 57 ballots were spoiled. Edinburgh City Council Chief Executive Andrew Kerr remarked it was a “very good turnout in the circumstances of a winter election”.
Results in full:
| Party | Candidate | FPv% | No. FPv |
| Scottish Liberal Democrats | Fiona Bennett | 55% | 4,577 |
| Scottish National Party | Donald Rutherford | 13.2% | 1,086 |
| Scottish Conservatives | Hugh Findlay | 9.5% | 788 |
| Scottish Labour | Richard Parker | 6.9% | 568 |
| Scottish Greens | Scottish Greens | 5% | 417 |
| Independent | Elaine Miller | 3.9% | 327 |
| Independent | Pete Gregson | 3.5% | 295 |
| Scottish Family Party | Richard Fettes | 1% | 90 |
| Scottish Libertarian Party | Gary Smith | 0.2% | 20 |
During the campaign Cllr Bennett said fixing the state of the roads and pavements would be her top priority and also promised to look at removing some bike lane bollards and push back against new parking restrictions in Corstorphine.
After the result was declared she said: “Something a lot of constituents are bringing to me is the fact that consultations on various things are going ahead and taking place, however it seems the wishes of the community are not abided by. So I would like to listen to constituents and do my utmost to ensure that we abide by what they’re asking of us.”
It was the second run at a seat in Corstorphine/Murrayfield in the space of a year for Conservative candidate Hugh Findlay and Labour’s Richard Parker, who both stood in last year’s council election.
Runner up, SNP candidate Donald Rutherford said: “We came second again, we came second last time so it just shows our vote has held up.
“I’d do it again - it was good to get out and it was different, before I was campaigning for other people and then you’re campaigning for yourself so there’s that adjustment you have to make. But overall it was good, everyone worked hard on the campaign.”
Independent Elaine Miller’s campaign followed a political stunt which went viral in which she flashed fake pubic hair from the Scottish Parliament’s public gallery in protest at the Gender Recognition Reform bill.
“I don’t have a political background and we’ve got half of the Labour vote equivalent, from somebody that is brand new, without a party system, without the resources that they have and just a bunch of female volunteers in the main," she said.
“Maybe that is something the [Labour] party should be looking at, because how have we managed to galvanise all of these women and they’re not?”
Former council employee Pete Gregson, who ran as an independent and took 295 votes, said his campaign had suffered a setback after he alleged he was “fleeced”.
He claimed: “The guy that was supposed to deliver my flyers took my money and dumped them in a skip and now I’m taking him to court.
“As an independent I had a few volunteers helping me but 11,000 homes is a lot to get round and it’s been hard, hard work.”
The Liberal Democrats now have 13 councillors in Edinburgh, the SNP have 18, Labour have 12, Greens have 10 and the Conservatives have 9, whilst Ross McKenzie is the council’s only independent councillor after he resigned from the Labour group last month at the budget meeting.
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