Scottish Labour’s Michael Shanks has won the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection in an overwhelming victory over the SNP that the party leadership declared “seismic”, and a clear demonstration that Scotland could lead the way in delivering a Labour government at Westminster at the coming general election.
In a result that exceeded Scottish Labour expectation, Shanks beat his closest rival, the SNP’s Katy Loudon, by 17,845 votes to 8,399 – a majority of 9,446 and a resounding swing of over 20%.
the Scottish Conservative candidate lost his deposit on the night
You love to see it
That’s not to say there aren’t loads of Tories. Just that they almost all tactically voted for Labour to get the SNP out.
If only 80s or even 90s Britain could see Scottish politics now. They would wonder wtf is going on, with Tory/Labour tactical voting and coalitions.
The SNP kidnapped a popular Scottish idea and warped their power to their own short term ends. Sad but true. They were their own worst enemy. The Tories continue to snort and spew an increasingly large foul puddle toxicity and filth off the slope of the failed Scottish referendum and Brexit. They (edit: the Tories) do not deserve, under any moral compass, any power in government yet they and their dark money backers have sewn up the system.
I honestly think the SNP still want independence, and to have a referendum, but they have no official route to get one. Which is completely wrong, democratically speaking.
Not really, there are tons of seperatist areas in countries around the world that would like to break away but aren’t permitted to by their central government. The SNP were permitted a referendum and lost, which is more than, say, the Spanish will give to Catalonia or the French to the Basques.
We are in a union between two countries. That’s the key difference.
e.g. our law systems are separate and pre-date the Union itself.
The question that I have is… say the SNP had another referendum, and the results were the same as the previous one. Would they then want another one? And another one after that? Would they just keep asking the same question until, by chance, it eventually comes out as 51% of the electorate wanting independence? If the SNP had the ability to call a referendum on independence whenever and however often they want, would there be a mechanism in place to stop them doing it every 6 months until they get the answer they want?
I’m not opposed to Scotland becoming independent if that’s genuinely what Scotland wants. But given support for it isn’t overwhelming, according to all the polls, it’s not a given that a second referendum would go the way the SNP wants. So at what point would they give up on independence if there was never enough consistent public support for it?
Although I’m uneasy with blocking any democratic right, I do see your point.
However, the voters have kept the SNP in power for 16 years now - there is clearly is still a strong interest in independence. There won’t be many unionist voting SNP for their other policies!
I think Northern Ireland have the right to a referendum every 7 years. That seems reasonable to me.
I would maintain that stance even in an independent Scotland, if unionist groups can get into power with reforming a union with England on the manifesto.
A strong interest, yes, but not an overwhelming desire for it. There does actually seem to be a proportion of people who vote for the SNP based on other policies they agree with, or because they like the idea of independence but don’t strongly support having it right now. And polling on the matter over time suggests support for it rarely tops 50% - with strong fluctuations based on what’s happening in Westminster. This suggests that support for independence has an anti-Tory/protest vote component to it. And as we know from Brexit, making a massive change based on a slim majority amongst those who actually voted, many of whom are protesting against austerity rather than making a rational decision, doesn’t always turn out well.
I’d be more convinced by Scottish independence if support for it was consistently above 60%, and the people who support it were making a rational decision, rather than a “I hate Tories!” or “I hate the English!” position. Like, I get it. I’m a Cornishman, and some days I think it’d be really nice to build a wall along the Tamar and keep all those pesky English people out. But I also make a distinction between something said out of frustration and something that’s intended to be serious policy.
I do agree there are solid arguments for a reform of the union, though! Not just for Scotland’s sake, but for Wales, Ireland, and various neglected regions of England as well. Pretty much all of the union would be better off if different regions had more power and money to decide for themselves what they need. Running the whole place from London, while London gets all the investment, just isn’t working.
I know what you mean. Big decisions being made by 50%+1 votes are definitely messy. But the alternative is that a minority wins. e.g. 60/40 or whatever. That’s even worse.
Maybe there should be a series of referendums and you need a majority 3 times in a row? But those might all be 50%+1 again.
Like it or not, people can even be found guilty of murder on the basis of a single person deciding one way or another.
Scotland isn’t just a region, it is still a country in its own right. Would we have been okay with the EU refusing us a Brexit referendum, or telling us we can only have one every X years? Of course not.
And, to be honest, people get tired of voting. If anything, frequent independence referendums would only put people off.
To be honest it’s all hypothetical. The UK government will never allow another independence referendum. And nor will Labour. Cameron only allowed one because he thought there would be no chance of a Yes vote. There is no getting out, no matter what percentage of the Scottish population want one.
Unless you have 100% of the population voting in a referendum, then you never know for sure that a minority hasn’t won with 50%+1. The general assumption is that people that don’t vote support the status quo, because if they supported a change, they’d vote for it. That’s why 60% is a good minimum to aim for, because it means support is overwhelming, not just slightly halfway over the total that cared enough to vote. It indicates a strength of feeling that 50%+1 on a 75% turnout does not.
I know what you mean, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to assume every non-voter is a vote for the status quo. There will be lots of sick, incapacitated, and (most of all) apathetic people out there.
To count those as the status quo is plain wrong IMO. It also gives motivation to those in power to make it difficult to vote for certain demographics, like we’ve seen recently with voter ID.
It’s a good point. The thing is that I did not, and still do not see the economic argument for a rational independence. Which is a pity. Perhaps with renewable energy there might be some sort of basis.
The biggest shame, IMHO, is that the Tories are so toxic and greedy that they have fucked up the ENTIRE UK which could otherwise be a great and productive union. There could be ‘enough to go round’ and create unity rather than embittered divisions.
The biggest shame, IMHO, is that the Tories are so toxic and greedy that they have fucked up the ENTIRE UK which could otherwise be a great and productive union. There could be ‘enough to go round’ and create unity rather than embittered divisions.
Beautifully said! It’s Tory mismanagement that’s ruined the entire UK, and I reckon with an actual decent government that promites genuine unity and fairness, would render independence unnecessary and undesirable.
Thanks. I wish I could make it happen.
Me too. I wish I could make it happen. Or, you know, that I could give you the ability to make it happen. Either is good. I wish we had a system where people that want to make things better actually stood a chance of getting somewhere, instead of those who are only in it for themselves.
Not that I particularly want to open this can of worms here, but I’m pretty sure that Scotland has more resources than a lot of lim independent European countries. Colossal amounts of renewables potential, oil (just don’t burn it), whisky, tourism, etc.
I agree about there being enough to go round. Unfortunately I don’t think the Conservatives or Labour are interested in that model, and FPTP elections are never going away at Westminster.
Full results, with major parties in bold (with apologies to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of India):
- Gloria Adebo (Scottish Liberal Democrats) - 895 (2.9%)
- Bill Bonnar (Scottish Socialist Party) - 271
- Garry Cooke (Independent) - 6
- Andrew Daly (Independent) - 81
- Cameron Eadie (Scottish Greens) - 601 (2%)
- Prince Ankit Love, Emperor of India - 34
- Niall Fraser (Scottish Family Party) - 319
- Ewan Hoyle (Volt UK) - 46
- Thomas Kerr (Scottish Conservatives) - 1,192 (3.9%)
- Katy Loudon (SNP) - 8,399 (27.6%)
- Chris Sermanni (Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) - 178
- Michael Shanks (Scottish Labour) - 17,845 (58.6%)
- David Stark (Reform UK) - 403
- Colette Walker (Independence for Scotland Party) - 207
Result: Labour gain from the SNP.
I think what this really says is that Rutherglen and Hamilton West has a lot of Stargate fans.
I have to presume tactical voting was rife, plugging these figures into a Scotland electoral calculus with their most recent national figures suggests the SNP would be completely wiped out in Scotland. I’m not convinced things are that bad for them yet. Still, I think Labour are likely to take a majority of Scottish seats.
Curtis on the radio this morning was saying that labour would most likely get half the seats.
That does make their task at the next election a lot easier.
The SNP is holed below the waterline. Losing two to one is not something you walk away from. I expect that the next Holyrood elections in 2026 will return a Labour, or Labour-Tory unionist coalition, government.
There are some reasons why the result in this particular seat would be worse than the general trend (covid rule breaking etc) but still, that’s an absolute rinsing.
Pretty striking stuff. It will be interesting to see to what extent Labour can hold together this broad coalition once a general election is underway and they need to take a clear position on things like Scottish independence.
Great result, but winning back a seat they last held in the 2017-19 parliament (and whose predecessor seats were Labour from 1964 and 1970 respectively until 2015) is not really seismic.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In a result that exceeded Scottish Labour expectation, Shanks beat his closest rival, the SNP’s Katy Loudon, by 17,845 votes to 8,399 – a majority of 9,446 and a resounding swing of over 20%.
But Yousaf added that the “circumstances of this byelection were always very difficult for us” – the contest was triggered after constituents voted for the Covid rule-breaking former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier to be removed from her seat.
During the campaign Shanks, a modern studies teacher at a local high school, said people were desperate for “a fresh start” following years of limbo with Ferrier, who sat as an independent after she was suspended from the SNP.
Both candidates centred their campaigns around the cost of living crisis, with Shanks attacking the SNP government at Holyrood’s record on public services and Loudon accusing UK Labour of “colluding” with Tory policies like the two-child benefit cap.
Polls suggest the SNP’s dominance is diminishing as the party struggles with questions of transparency and governance linked to the police investigation into its financial conduct, with Labour the beneficiary.
With no clear route to a second independence referendum and the public overwhelmed by cost of living concerns, there are strong indications that Scottish voters are now less likely to choose which party to back based on their constitutional preferences.
The original article contains 654 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
