Scottish Labour has won a pivotal Holyrood byelection, beating the incumbent SNP and fighting off Reform UK’s aggressive racist campaigning, in a remarkable turnaround of fortunes that will boost the party ahead of next year’s Scottish parliamentary elections.
Voters in the central Scotland seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse rallied round the popular local candidate Davy Russell after a toxic campaign that saw Nigel Farage launch an unprecedented series of personal racist attacks on Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
The Nationalists had been the clear favourites to hold the seat after a fiercely contested campaign called after the sudden death of popular SNP MSP Christina McKelvie from breast cancer, but were beaten into second place, with Reform UK trailing in third.
With Reform UK seemingly gaining ground from both the SNP and Scottish Labour, the speculation had been that Reform UK might push Sarwar’s party into third place.
But in the end, with a reasonably high turnout for a byelection of 44.2%, Scottish Labour reaped the rewards of their highly targeted campaigning and well organised get-out-the-vote operation to pull off an unexpected victory.
