Nigel Farage told his 'mob' isn't wanted after by election surprise
Nigel Farage told his 'mob' isn't wanted after by election surprise
Labour defied expectations to win the Hamilton by election and the party's new MSP criticised Labour
Richard Tice also attended the count in Hamilton
Labour's winning candidate Davy Russell criticised Reform UK after his party claimed a suprise win in the Hamilton by election in Scotland. Labour defied expectations to beat both the SNP and Reform, who came third.
The Labour Party's win comes against the backdrop of national polls which placed 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 Scottish Government election.
All three parties were close, leading some pundits to say Scottish politics was now a three-horse race. But it was a dismal night for the Conservatives who came a long way behind in fourth.
Speaking after the result announced, the new MSP Mr Russell said the community had "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."
Mr Russell won 8,559 votes, with the SNP's Katy Loudon in second on 7,957, ahead of Reform's Ross Lambie, who secured 7,088 votes. The Conservatives had just 1,621 votes.
The vote totals in full in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election
Davy Russell (Labour) 8,559, 31.6%
Katy Loudon (SNP) 7,957, 29.4%
Ross Lamby (Reform) 7,088, 26.1%
Richard Nelson (Conservative) 1,621, 6%
Ann McGuinness (Green) 695, 2.6%
Aisha Mir (Liberal Democrat) 533, 2%
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Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice said coming third in the contest was a "massive boost for us". He said "We're thrilled to bits, absolutely delighted."
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.'
Davy Russell took the win on Thursday
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.'
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.
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'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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Scotsman
27 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Hamilton by-election: How Labour 'defied the odds' and Reform ripped up the rulebook
Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Anas Sarwar was buzzing. The triumphant Scottish Labour leader told journalists his party had defied the bookies, the pollsters and the pundits by winning the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, and it was now 'game on'. He had a point. Almost everyone thought the SNP would keep hold of the seat, albeit with a much reduced majority. In the end, Labour's candidate, Davy Russell, beat his Nationalist rival by 602 votes. It was a narrow victory, but a win is a win. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad On Friday, as Labour held a victory rally in Hamilton, one party spinner purchased a "humble pie" - technically, an apple flan - from the Bayne's bakery next to their campaign HQ and used it to tease journalists who had written off Labour's chances. A Reform UK election billboard poster in Larkhall | PA Alas, it wasn't long before Professor Sir John Curtice, the polling guru, rained on their parade with some cold, hard numbers. The result, he said, was actually 'way below' what Labour needs if it wants to win next year's Holyrood election. "I think the honest truth is that neither Labour nor the SNP can be really particularly happy with this result,' he told The Scotsman. Professor Sir John Curtice has an important message about how to restore the public's trust in politics and democracy (Picture: Leon Neal) | Getty Images Instead, the most important development in terms of its wider implications lies elsewhere. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Hamilton by-election was a tight three-horse race between Labour, the SNP and Nigel Farage's Reform UK. The latter came in third, but still secured a remarkable 26 per cent of the vote, outperforming its national polling. In light of this, Sir John said, the possibility that Reform might come second next year, ahead of Labour, 'is not an outcome that we can presume is out of the bounds of possibility'. Like it or not, Reform is now a force to be reckoned with in Scottish politics, and all without having a separate leadership team in place north of the Border. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The spectre of Mr Farage dominated the by-election campaign, and his visit to the constituency on Monday received huge amounts of coverage. His rivals also spent a great deal of time talking about him. The First Minister repeatedly portrayed the by-election as a two-horse race between the SNP and Reform - an analysis that turned out to be somewhat flawed, to put it mildly. "Reform's performance, 26 per cent, is more than you would expect in Hamilton, if the result there were simply reflecting what the opinion polls have been telling us,' Sir John said. "Now there are [a few] possibilities. One is that the Reform campaign in the constituency might have been particularly effective. I certainly think that Mr [Ross] Lambie was a relatively strong candidate. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "And it may well be that Labour and the SNP made the cardinal, classic mistake of giving lots of lovely publicity to your opponent's election campaign. "Or it may be that the polls are indeed underestimating Reform somewhat. We did see Reform doing better than expected in the English local elections, and then the polls caught up with what the local elections were saying." The polling expert added: "For those of us who weren't consumed by the day to day events in Hamilton, we were going 'hang on, the only thing that anybody is hearing about this by-election campaign is what Nigel Farage is saying, as advertised by Anas Sarwar and John Swinney'." Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse was prime territory for Labour, and exactly the sort of seat it should be winning. Nevertheless, a narrative developed during the campaign the party was in trouble, and there was speculation it could even come third. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad That did not happen, and Mr Sarwar is quite right to celebrate a hard-earned victory. Anas Sarwar, leader of the Scottish Labour party, celebrates with deputy leader Jackie Baillie. | Lisa Ferguson Mark Diffley, the pollster, said it was a 'big win' for Labour. However, he said it was 'not right' to say the party had hugely outperformed its polling. 'National polling puts Labour at 20 per cent, down two points from 2021 Holyrood election,' he wrote on social media. 'In this by-election, Labour's vote share fell by two points from the Hamilton result in 2021.' Labour bosses credited their victory to activists rolling up their sleeves and hitting the doors. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "For a long time, people looked at the SNP and thought they had the strongest communications strategy, the strongest digital outlook and they had the strongest field operation,' Mr Sarwar said. 'I genuinely believe we beat them in all three of those areas. We ran the most significant and best ground operation in any constituency in the history of the Scottish Labour party in this by-election." Meanwhile, John Swinney, the First Minister and SNP leader, told journalists he would 'consider the implications' of the result. 'There's nothing quite like being on the doorsteps for several weeks to hear what people are thinking and feeling, and you hear it very directly,' he said. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Asked about a potential Cabinet reshuffle, he said: 'Obviously I've got to consider all the issues about the ministerial team. [Energy Secretary] Màiri McAllan will be concluding her maternity leave soon, so these issues will be considered.' While his rival celebrated in Hamilton, Mr Swinney took questions at the SNP's HQ near the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. It was, understandably, a muted affair. But spare a thought for the Scottish Tories, who secured just 6 per cent of the vote. The party will meet for its annual conference in Edinburgh next weekend, where leader Russell Findlay will have the unenviable task of trying to build some momentum.
ITV News
28 minutes ago
- ITV News
Reform UK to send first ‘Doge' team to look at council spending in Kent
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Wales Online
35 minutes ago
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