LABOUR’S Michael Shanks is Scotland’s newest MP after winning the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.
Here is a breakdown of all the votes for every one of the 14 candidates:
- Gloria Adebo (Scottish Liberal Democrats) – 895
- Bill Bonnar (Scottish Socialist Party) – 271
- Garry Cooke (Independent) – 6
- Andrew Daly (Independent) – 81
- Cameron Eadie (Scottish Greens) – 601
- Prince Ankit Love, Emperor of India (Independent) – 34
- Niall Fraser (Scottish Family Party) – 319
- Ewan Hoyle (Volt UK) – 46
- Thomas Kerr (Scottish Conservatives) – 1192
- Katy Loudon (SNP) – 8399
- Chris Sermanni (Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) – 178
- Michael Shanks (Scottish Labour) – 17,845
- David Stark (Reform UK) – 403
- Colette Walker (Independence for Scotland Party) – 207
The results mean that Labour won 58.6% of the vote and the SNP 27.6%.
The Scottish Tories, who came third, won just 3.9% of the vote. Because they failed to win at least 5% of the ballots cast, the Tories lost their £500 deposit.
The turnout was just 37.19%, meaning that 68.81% of elgible voters did not take part in the by-election. A total of 30,531 votes were cast out of 82,104 people in the electorate.
The seat was vacated when Margaret Ferrier was ousted in a recall petition.
Ferrier was kicked out of the SNP for breaching Covid regulations by travelling between London and Glasgow after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Speculation about her position followed by the recall petition and subsequent ballot led to months of campaigning in the seat.
The election was the first in Scotland to require voters to show photo ID before they were allowed to cast their ballot following a change in Westminster legislation that governs Westminster elections.
Polling stations were open between 7am and 10pm on Thursday, with counting conducted at the headquarters of South Lanarkshire Council in Hamilton.
