West Dunbartonshire Council

Labour’s William Rooney (pictured) has won the Kilpatrick Ward by-election.

Dr Rooney, a research scientist at the University of Glasgow, polled 814 votes to beat the SNP candidate Marina Scanlan into second place with 564 votes and Reform candidate David Smith, who lives in Dumbarton, third with 200 votes. All other candidates polled less than 100 votes.

William Rooney (Scottish Labour Party): 814

Marina Scanlan: (Scottish National Party SNP): 564

David Haydn Smith (UK Reform): 200

The election was decided using the Single Transferable Vote electoral system, which asks voters to mark their preference in numerical order.

Turnout for the by election was just 19.2%, with 1705 votes cast from an electorate of 8879, which means 7,000 people with the right to vote failed to vote.

Announcing the new councillor, Returning Officer Peter Hessett said: “Congratulations to our newly elected councillor, William Rooney, and thank you to all of the candidates who put themselves forward to represent the people of the Kilpatrick Ward.

“Councillors play a vital role in our local communities, ensuring residents’ voices are heard, shaping decisions on key issues and striving for high standards in public services.

“I would also like to thank everyone who came out to vote in this by-election and acknowledge the hard work of our election team and count staff who ensured the process was efficient and fair.”

Will Rooney has an impressive academic biography on the university website.

He states: “I joined CVR Genomics as a Research Associate in 2023 and I am the technical lead in transcriptomic technologies. Previously, I worked as a Product Development Scientist at BioClavis Ltd., a startup biotechnology company that harnessed proprietary Next Generation Sequencing-based technology to develop precision diagnostics tests. I was the product development lead on a number of internal projects and project manager on a blood biopsy grant funded by UKRI.

“I have a doctorate in Plant Science at the University of Glasgow, which focussed on genetically modifying crops to make them more resistant to bacterial plant pathogens. My PhD research was patented by the University of Glasgow.”