Professor Sir John Curtice has seen enough. Reflecting on Labour’s thumping win last night in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, the polling guru said that by-election swings on this scale were “the kinds of swings that, historically at least, Oppositions have secured when they are going on to win the next general election”.
As the votes started to be counted, it quickly became clear that Scottish Labour, for so long in the doldrums, was back. The party took the seat on a swing of more than 20 per cent which, if replicated at a general election, would see it sweep 40 seats north of the border.
