Davy Russell wins the Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse by-election and is immediately congratulated by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and his deputy Jackie Baillie, the Dumbarton constituency MSP.
Let’s start with the basics. It was a great win for Scottish Labour, but it might not have materialised had their candidate Davy Russell not been a truly local person, who had the enthusiastic support of his fellow citizens of the once proud Lanarkshire burgh.
And a popular man in its adjacent towns of Larkhall and Stonehouse, where Davy Russell is a local hero who was given little or no chance by political anoraks and the media whom he all but ignored in the run-up to election on Thursday..
Labour’s position in the polls has slipped considerably since last year’s general election and they found themselves on the defensive when it came to controversial UK Labour policies, such as cuts to winter fuel payments, the child benefit cap and the WASPI women debacle.
Despite all that, they’ve taken this Holyrood seat from the SNP with a little help from celebrity friends such as football manager Alex Ferguson and political colleagues, including Dumbarton constituency MSP Jackie Baillie, who was hugged with delight for her part in the win by comrades during the after result celebrations.
This result will be a massive boost to party activists, politicians, and leader Anas Sarwar, who has been struggling to keep ahead of the game in recent weeks.
Even after the polls closed the SNP seemed quietly confident of victory.
Their leader, John Swinney, had claimed that only his party could beat Reform in this particular seat.
But Labour confounded expectations. Their newest MSP, Davy Russell, is off to Holyrood.
He had faced criticism for avoiding some interviews during the campaign, but party insiders insist that his local popularity is what allowed them to squeeze a victory.
Later, it was confirmed that Scottish Labour had won the by-election. Here is the full breakdown of vote totals:
- Collette Bradley, Scottish Socialist Party: 278 votes
- Andy Brady, Scottish Family Party: 219 votes
- Ross Lambie, Reform UK: 7088 votes
- Katy Loudon, SNP: 7957 votes.
- Janice MacKay, Ukip: 50 votes.
- Ann McGuinness, Scottish Greens: 695 votes
- Aisha Mir, Liberal Democrats: 533 votes.
- Richard Nelson, Conservative and Unionist Party: 1621 votes.
- Davy Russell, Labour Party: 8559 votes.
- Marc Wilkinson, Independent: 109 votes.
- Void ballots. 46.
All that being said, there are some caveats to this result.
Labour won a Westminster by-election in this area less than two years ago with a majority of about 9,500.
And in the 2024 General Election they won the corresponding House of Commons seat by a similar margin.
This time they squeaked through with the SNP close behind and Nigel Farage’s controversial Reform UK Party polling thousands of vote which took them into third place.