Surprise Hamilton win ‘changes the script' for Scottish Labour, leader says
Davy Russell took the seat vacated by the death of Scottish Government minister and SNP MSP Christina McKelvie.
The deputy lord lieutenant of Lanarkshire, who has never held elected office, beat out SNP candidate Katy Loudon, who fell to her third defeat since 2023.
Davy Russell took the win on Thursday (Jane Barlow/PA)
The win comes against the backdrop of national polls which place Scottish Labour in third place behind the SNP and Reform UK and will undoubtedly give a boost to Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar's bid to become First Minister in next year's election.
While the party had been believed to be among the frontrunners alongside the SNP, the Nigel Farage-led Reform UK saw a surge which took them into third place, just 800 votes away from the SNP.
When the votes were counted, Mr Russell polled 8,559, with Ms Loudon coming second on 7,957, ahead of Reform's Ross Lambie, who secured 7,088 votes.
Speaking to the PA news agency after the declaration, Mr Sarwar said: 'I think people need to change the script, because we've proven the pollsters wrong.
'We've proven the commentators wrong, we've proven the bookies wrong.
'We've proven John Swinney wrong and so many others wrong too.'
In the final weeks of the campaign, the First Minister said it was a 'two-horse race' between the SNP and Reform, but Mr Sarwar asked what it says about a Government that has been in power for 18 years and 'all it has to offer in a campaign is vote SNP to stop Farage'.
A massive congratulations to our newest MSP, Davy Russell!
The road to a new direction for Scotland in 2026 with Anas Sarwar as First Minister begins here. pic.twitter.com/fay0Ai2q4U
— Scottish Labour (@ScottishLabour) June 6, 2025
Mr Russell had faced criticism for his perceived lack of media appearances, but Mr Sarwar said such arguments were borne of 'an element of classism and elitism'.
Speaking from the stage after his win, Mr Russell said: 'Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse has voted tonight to take a new direction with Scottish Labour.
'Like the people here in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, and right across Scotland, we all feel we have been let down by the SNP.'
The newly-minted MSP also hit out at Reform, saying the win 'sent a message to Farage and his mob tonight – the poison of Reform isn't us, it isn't Scotland and we don't want your division here'.
While Mr Tice told PA he was 'thrilled to bits' with the result.
'It's a fantastic result, just a few hundred votes away from the SNP, nobody predicted that that,' he said.
'I think that sets us up with excitement and momentum for the next 11 months into the Holyrood elections.'
Richard Tice also attended the count in Hamilton (Jane Barlow/PA)
Asked what his party needs to do to carry forward that momentum, Mr Tice said Reform UK will spend time 'working that out'.
While First Minister John Swinney said Ms Loudon had 'fought a superb SNP campaign' and that he was 'clearly disappointed' they were unable to win.
'Labour won by an absolute landslide in this area less than a year ago – we came much closer tonight, but the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse have made clear that we still have work to do,' he added.
'Over the next few days, we will take time to consider the result fully.'
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Booze, wood-burners, Sunday roasts... as the list of everyday pleasures targeted by the SNP grows longer, have we EVER been subjected to a more censorious nanny state government?
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NHS Fife, for instance, is leaning on the hot takeaway trade to cut the typical portion of, for instance, fish and chips. And the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission suddenly has anglers in its crosshairs. Fishing practices should be reformed, it drones, as fish are 'sentient beings' with 'emotional experiences that matter to them.' It hopes ministers will soon review the law regarding 'actions that occur in the normal course of fishing.' Such a move, panted one newspaper and as if it had just unmasked Lord Lucan, 'could outlaw many aspects of angling such as hooking a fish and removing it from the water.' SAWC does, admittedly, have form. Only in February, it thought about forbidding cat ownership in parts of the country where there was demonstrable predation on birds and small mammals. 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Daily Mail
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STEPHEN DAISLEY: Baillie grinned like the cat who got the cream...and sent the milkman to A&E
With its astonishing victory in the Hamilton by-election, Scottish Labour becomes the first recorded case of resurrection from the dead in more than 2,000 years. No one predicted this. Not the pollsters, nor the pundits; not the bookies, nor the broadcasters. Anyone who says otherwise is telling big fat porkies. Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse was staying SNP or there was going to be an upset for Reform. And while Richard Tice didn't look upset necessarily, you'd have been hard-pressed to guess his party had received one in every four votes cast in a staunchly left-wing seat it had never contested before. The Reform deputy leader's mind might have been on other matters. Earlier in the day, his party chairman Zia Yusuf quit amid an internal spat on the merits of banning the burqa. Hacks ambushed Tice at the count demanding his views. It's not every day South Lanarkshire Council HQ hosts an impromptu debate on Islamic theology. The man of the night, though, was Davy Russell. Up there on the dais with the other candidates, the bloke just beamed. He is what you'd get if you asked ChatGPT for a Lanarkshire granda: ruddy coupon, unpolished manner, plain diction, doesn't like a fuss, slips the grandweans full-fat Irn-Bru when their mammy isn't looking. (Speaking later to a journalist, he said: 'The only high greater than this was when my grandson Adam was born six weeks ago.' Bless.) His victory speech had obviously been written for him by a press officer and if his delivery was flat and unvaried, it was all this banal checklist of soundbites called for. There was, to be fair, one moment of wit. 'And for Ross,' Russell smirked, 'can you see me noo?' Ross Lambie, his Reform opponent, had branded Russell 'the invisible man' after he failed to show for a televised hustings. Labour's decision to keep their man away from the debate was a canny one. Russell is not a seasoned public speaker. He would have opened himself to awkward questions about Labour policies at Westminster. The potential for gaffes would have been too great. With any luck we'll see more pushback against this alien American interloper into our democracy. TV debates are show-business, not politics, and unless you have a showbiz candidate, they should be avoided. The outcome was as dazzling for Labour as for everyone else. As Anas Sarwar made a valiant attempt to explain the result to Sky News, over his shoulder Labour whip Martin McCluskey had an expression I've only ever seen on someone coming off a three-day bender. What was happening? Was it actually happening? Is it possible to hallucinate off the back of three cups of lukewarm tea? TV cameras caught Sarwar, gape-jawed and gripping Jackie Baillie by the elbows, before breaking into a smile. This victory belonged as much to him as to anyone. Beating the SNP is one thing, but he had triumphed over Scottish Labour's most fearsome foe: Keir Starmer. The Prime Minister threw everything he could at Russell's campaign — Universal Credit changes, Winter Fuel Allowance cuts, uncontrolled immigration — but somehow Scottish Labour managed to clinch victory from the jaws of Starmer. In the wee small hours of Friday there was already speculation that Sarwar could turn around the polls in time to win Holyrood 2026. But, wait, where was John Swinney in all this? He was the face of the SNP's campaign in Hamilton. He made the poll a choice between his genre of politics and that of Nigel Farage. Yet when the chips, not to mention the ballots, were down he was nowhere to be seen. On STV, it was put to Baillie that the First Minister had been adamant that Hamilton was a straight fight between the SNP and Reform. She grinned like the cat that not only got the cream but had sent the milkman to A&E in the process. 'The First Minister is adamant about a lot of things,' she purred. On Friday, Swinney finally found his way to a TV camera and asserted that, while the SNP had come second, it had nevertheless 'made progress'. If losing a constituency the SNP had held uninterrupted since 2011 is the First Minister's definition, may his party make much, much more progress over the next 12 months
Daily Mail
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JIM SILLARS: SNP settled for mediocrity and paid the price with this result
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