The plan was for a morning of low-key door knocking for the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, and Michael Shanks, the party’s candidate for the anticipated byelection in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, the seat held by the former Scottish National party MP and Covid rule-breaker Margaret Ferrier.
But as the media descended, looking for Sarwar’s reaction to the arrest of the former first minister Nicola Sturgeon in Police Scotland’s investigation into the finances of the party she previously led, it was clear that the significance of this seat in the political landscape had again been heightened: once more the SNP was in turmoil and Scottish Labour primed to seize the momentum.
