SNP win Clydebank by-election as Reform beat Scottish Labour
The SNP's Kevin Crawford (below) picked up the seat with 1331 first-preference votes, while Reform UK came in second with their candidate securing 919 first-preference votes.
Kevin Crawford (Image: Newsquest) READ MORE: LGBT+ people 'living in fear' after politicians' 'betrayal', John Swinney told
The first-preference votes were as follows:
Kevin Crawford (SNP) – 1331
David Smith (Reform UK) – 919
Maureen McGlinchey (Scottish Labour) – 770
Cameron Eoin Stewart (Scottish LibDems) – 167
Brian Walker (Scottish Conservatives) – 87
Eryn Browning (Scottish Greens) – 83
Kristopher Duncan (Alba Party) – 51
Andrew Joseph Muir (Scottish Family Part) – 25
The by-election was held after the resignation of former SNP councillor James McElhill, who cited personal health reasons.
The voting turnout was 25.3%, which is around 2954 out of 11,657 eligible voters.
After the result was announced, First Minister John Swinney congratulated Crawford in a post on social media.
READ MORE: 'Anti-LGBT+ lobby at work in UK and Scottish Governments', Scottish Pride groups warn
Swinney wrote: "Warmest congratulations to Kevin Crawford our newest @theSNP Councillor and his hardworking team."
BREAKING : SNP WIN CLYDEBANK WATERFRONT. Warmest congratulations to Kevin Crawford our newest @theSNP Councillor and his hardworking team. https://t.co/Bx1Vq5FXRD — John Swinney (@JohnSwinney) May 16, 2025
Another crucial by-election, this time in Holyrood, will take place next month in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, following the death of MSP Christina McKelvie.
The National reported how Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is set to visit the constituency in the first week of June, just days before the vote on June 5.
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Spectator
25 minutes ago
- Spectator
Give J.D. Vance a glimpse of real Britain
We're used to strange sights in north Oxfordshire. The first person I ever met in our small Cotswolds town was a lady who brandished a tin of homemade mackerel pâté at me. It was delicious, but the nature of her greeting gives you an idea of the kind of eccentricity that's familiar in this part of the world. Yet despite the area's high tolerance of the bizarre – hardly diminished by the presence of Jeremy Clarkson up the road – I've lately witnessed a series of events that have stood out as particularly unusual. I recently took a train surrounded by dozens of confused Americans and their children carrying mounds of luggage bearing 'VP Vance' tags. (One unfortunate passenger tried to squeeze past them to use the lavatory and was told to wait until they'd alighted at the next stop.) They were swiftly met off the train by a bunch of secret service agents who were so obviously members of the secret service that it was akin to bank robbers walking around in stripy jumpers bearing bags emblazoned with 'Swag'. Over in the tiny hamlet of Dean, a giant white gazebo was draped above an unassuming country lane, while police blocked all traffic. This circus is, of course, the result of the visit by America's Vice-President. J.D. Vance is the second VP we've seen in the Cotswolds in as many weeks. Vance's visit has presented something of a supply-and-demand problem for British news editors: an apparently limitless need for infuriated locals to interview, not quite enough of them to go around. The best one newspaper could muster was a pair of mildly inconvenienced dogwalkers forced to take a detour to avoid one of the Vance-related checkpoints. My husband, the vicar of a parish close to where the VP is staying, has been asked to speak to no fewer than six media outlets. I suspect that most residents, while bemused by the arrival of incident tents and secret service agents, are not particularly bothered either way. The reasons for Vance's coming here are fairly obvious. This Oxfordshire patch of the Cotswolds isn't just a nice place, but appears the very essence of the picture-postcard 'Olde England' that appeals to so many Americans and other visitors from around the world. A stone's throw away, Soho Farmhouse offers a kind of VR headset rural experience for city escapees. They flog a kind of Potemkin countryside for those who rarely socialise outside of London's Zone 1 or midtown Manhattan. The rest of Vance's trip has been a similarly deep dive into a fantasy Britain. From the Palladian splendour of Chevening (which David Lammy confusingly referred to as his own home) to a private tour of Hampton Court and to golf and whisky in the Scottish lowlands, Mr Vance is playing historic Britain's greatest hits. No one can blame him for this: these sites are impressive and beautiful. Yet the government – so eager to impress the American regime despite its sabre-rattling at Canada, its ill-treatment of President Zelensky etc – might consider broadening its scope. Rather than confining Mr Vance's trip to Ye Olde England, it seems only fair that they should take him on a more accurate tour of the 'Yookay' in 2025. Where could they start? Well, first and foremost, they'll need to sort accommodation. I'm afraid that after a week in the manor house at Dean, the accommodation at the Britannia migrant hotel might seem like a downgrade but Mr Vance can rest assured that the British taxpayer will pick up every single penny of the bill. And I'm reliably informed that within an hour or two of their arrival, guests can hop out again on a moped for an illegal food-delivery run. Play their cards right and they may even end up with more disposable income from doing this than many of their fellow workers who declare and pay tax on their earnings, and aren't housed for free in city centres. When it comes to eating, there will be no shortage of government cronies who'd be only too happy to have Mr Vance for supper on Sir Keir's say-so. While the idea of going to dinner with any of the current cabinet would be enough to make most American politicians long for Ford's Theatre, of all his potential hosts, surely the one who'd provide the best insight into how Britain is governed in 2025 would be the appalling Lord Hermer. Imagine the scene: over a kitchen table somewhere in Islington, poor J.D. has to chew through his Ottolenghi salad while the Attorney General and special guest Philippe Sands enlighten him as to how foreign terrorists are the real victims and the Chagossians had it coming. What about entertainment? It feels appropriate that Mr Vance should engage with some of the activities that make up day-to-day life in the Yookay. He might witness dozens of shoplifters cheerfully strolling off with large quantities of merch while impotent staff do nothing. Perhaps he could spend six hours on hold with a GP surgery merely to find that every slot has been given to a council-paid interpreter? Or maybe he could go to a public park in one of our more vibrant areas to watch the theft, slaughter and cooking of some urban wildfowl? To be honest, whatever entertainment is planned for Mr Vance in this second week of seeing real Britain is moot, as presumably he'll be leaving the Cotswolds on the same railway line that his secret service goons took from Paddington – a station which saw 'significant delays' to journeys on 363 days last year. With the state of Britain as it is, no one could begrudge Mr Vance his trip into fairyland. What's reprehensible is that the very people who have done their best to undermine the beauty and traditions of the countryside are now only too willing to hawk them for political ends.
Spectator
26 minutes ago
- Spectator
What is there to be optimistic about for British business?
In this season of scant corporate news – a Ryanair rant against the French here, a new BP oilfield there – it's hard to know what business leaders are thinking about the cold months to come. Until, that is, you read a survey conducted last month for the Institute of Directors. Given that I'm writing from France this month, I'd call it an absolute croissant-dropper. The nub is that 639 UK businesses, large and small, report 'optimism in prospects for the UK economy' at -72, lower even than their darkest pandemic sentiment at -69 in April 2020. Export hopes and investment intentions are down, wage expectations are sharply up and, unsurprisingly, headcounts are set to fall. No less than 85 per cent of respondents believe 'government policy so far will be unsuccessful in driving up economic growth'. Significantly, this isn't just traditional anti-Labour boardroom sentiment: the confidence index spiked in positive territory immediately after Sir Keir Starmer's election victory. But it plunged after Rachel Reeves's October Budget and is now at its lowest since the series began in 2016. Many firms are 'struggling to plan amid a cacophony of risk', adds the Institute's chief economist Anna Leach. 'The government must urgently quash rumours of further tax rises for business this autumn, and accelerate planning reforms and deregulation.' To which Downing Street spinners might respond, 'Who listens to the diminished IoD these days?' But then again, who else out there is trying to interpret the exigencies of hard-pressed business to Labour's cabinet of incompetents and union toadies? Where are they now, the 121 'business leaders and investors' (albeit many we'd never heard of) who signed a pre-election letter last May endorsing Labour's plan for growth which so rapidly turned to dust? The bitter truth is that this is the least business-savvy government for the past 50 years. And if a cross-section of frontline corporate chiefs are as utterly disheartened as the IoD survey suggests, things can only get worse. Airport scuffle I hesitate to wade into an airport scuffle between two entities I admire, namely Ryanair and, in a very broad sense, the French Republic. But the airline claims that 36,000 of its flights between January and July suffered delays caused by mismanagement and strikes in French air traffic control. It also says that a hike in 'solidarity tax' on short-haul fares from €2.63 to €7.40 has rendered many French routes uneconomic, necessitating a 750,000-seat cull for the coming winter and further cuts in 2026 that will 'leave French regional airports half empty' – where it might otherwise have invested $2.5 billion for a doubling of passenger numbers. 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It rhymes with reports that unemployment for French 15- to 24-year-olds persists at around 19 per cent, within an overall rate of 7.5 per cent – compared with ours at 4.7 per cent, if you believe the way it's measured – and that tens of thousands more jobs are at the mercy of Trump's whim. Against that backdrop, did I perhaps over-egg the francophilia when I wrote last week about the animal spirits of my own revivified village of St Pompon? Saturday's marché gourmand nocturne offers a test. In early evening heat close to 40°C, the crowd and the trade are thin. But as the sun sets, the trestle tables fill up, the food queues lengthen, even the Dutch campers spend freely – and at dusk the DJ plays a version of 'Le Madison' that brings out 30 spontaneous line dancers, including the village postmaster, in perfect formation. Rosé from Puy l'Évêque at €7 a bottle helps, but the upbeat energy I was looking for is here – and my eyes are filled with tears.
Spectator
26 minutes ago
- Spectator
Can Reform beat the blob?
Shortly after he was elected as Britain's youngest council leader last month, 19-year-old George Finch of Reform UK had a conversation with Monica Fogarty, the chief executive of Warwickshire county council, about which of them was really running the show. In Finch's telling, this was a watershed moment: he offered a 'professional working relationship' but the relationship quickly soured. 'I know you're trying to get rid of me,' Fogarty said, according to Finch. 'Well, you can't get rid of me. The way it works around here is: your councillors play ball.' Finch allegedly replied: 'Are you joking? You have to work with us. It's not the other way around. We've been put here by the electorate. You haven't.' He says now: 'The old Tory leader just gave her loads of delegated powers.' Reform has just marked 100 days run-ning 12 town halls across the country, a period which has seen clashes between elected councillors and the permanent bureaucracy. These have been most acute in Warwickshire, ground zero in Reform's fight to show it can get things done in the face of resistance from 'the blob' of permanent officials. In Warwickshire, Finch and Fogarty first fell out when Finch demanded the removal of the Pride flag from council HQ. Fogarty refused, though the flag came down at the end of Pride month. When told she did not have the necessary planning permission to fly the flag, Fogarty said there was no formal policy for doing so. Finch is pushing for a ban, which requires a vote in full council. The confrontation turned ugly after Finch says council legal advisers told him he wouldn't have a leg to stand on if Reform opposed plans to remodel a junction, sending HGVs past a school to an industrial zone. 'You can't stop it,' he was told. 'You'll go into judicial review.' When the issue came up in council and an amendment was tabled to delay the plans, only at that point did the legal adviser reverse the advice and tell Finch he could defer a decision. His councillors told him he had been 'stitched up' by officials who had wanted to push the plan through. Reform backed the delay. Farage's team point to Fogarty's background as a race relations officer to say she was ideologically opposed to a crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. Finch says: 'When it came to policy on DEI and net zero, it was literally like Yes Minister. Officials said: 'Are you sure this is what you want to do? Voters might not like it.' But this is why we were elected.' When Finch asked to look at Fogarty's employment contract, he was at first told she didn't have one. After three weeks, a document appeared with details redacted. Warwickshire county council declined to provide a response prior to publication to any of Finch's claims. Warwickshire is not the only battlefield. In Kent, where Reform is imitating Donald Trump's Doge unit to slash waste, officials resisted moves to scrap a net-zero renewables programme that involved the purchase of a fleet of electric vehicles and was to cost nearly £40 million. Luke Campbell, the Olympic gold-medallist boxer elected mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, told the Telegraph that officials were blocking his agenda. They say his 'one-man band' approach created a 'toxic working environment'. These clashes are a sign of what a Reform government might be up against if they win national power in 2029. Official resistance takes several forms: an ideological opposition by left-wing local officials to the policies of the populist right; a belief in experience over politicians who have not run a bath, let alone a £1 billion budget; a preference for process over political pronouncements; and a power struggle between those who have a public mandate and those who think they know best. Simon Case, who worked for David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson in No. 10 and who wrestled with Dominic Cummings's efforts to reform/blow up Whitehall, admits there can be ideological differences: 'You have to spend a lot of time as cabinet secretary, reminding the whole system of what the civil service code says, which is that you're there to support the government of the day, no matter how uncomfortable that is. Ultimately, if you don't want to work for them, resign.' He commends Oliver Robbins, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, who recently wrote to his staff telling them to resign if they didn't like Labour's policy on Gaza. Case has publicly recommended that the civil service admit Reform to contact talks with mandarins 12 months before the 2029 general election, if there is any prospect of them even sharing power. He says there is an onus on officials to anticipate 'cultural changes', as well as policy changes, to 'learn the language' of the 'new boss class'. When he presided over the transition from Tories to Labour, Case told civil servants: 'Here's a bunch of people who aren't going to talk about 'levelling up' any more. They care about exactly that same thing, but don't call it 'levelling up'. Read the speeches and read the manifesto so you understand their way of thinking.' But he also urges Farage not to assume that he can simply transpose the lessons of Warwickshire on to Whitehall. 'Politicians across the political spectrum are united in their frustration that the British system isn't delivering,' Case says. 'The really interesting question for Reform is will they do the homework required to understand immediately the changes they need to make in how government works? Nigel Farage probably never spends time at the Institute for Government [thinktank] – but read what the IfG says about what is wrong with government, what is wrong with the bureaucracy and the laws that have put unaccountable officials in charge of things instead of politicians.' Case says 'most of the time' clashes between officials and ministers come about because civil servants say: 'Here are all the reasons why you can't do what you want to do because you don't actually have the power to do it.' The main target for Reform is the European Convention on Human Rights, which lets judges defy ministers and voters on migration. But huge power also resides with quangocrats in arms-length organisations. Morgan McSweeney, Starmer's chief of staff, complains that 60 per cent of government press officers are working against his own spin-doctors for taxpayer-funded organisations with agendas of their own. Case can see a scenario in which a prepared Reform government produces a great repeal bill with the Brexit slogan 'Take back control'. He explains: 'If they did their homework, you could remove all of those obstacles at a stroke. It's not just the top things, like scrapping the Office for Budget Responsibility, but here are all the people who can block planning applications for motorways or power stations. Here are all the statutory consultees every time you launch a new business support programme.' Reform's voters tend to think the system has failed and want to destroy it rather than make it function better. But Labour voters also thought the system had failed and they are now being let down by Starmer's inability to deliver the change he promised. McSweeney spent the pre-election period working on how to win rather than how to govern, wrongly assuming Sue Gray was taking care of that. Since he replaced her in October he has, an ally says, become 'infected with governmentitis' – a near manic obsession with how the system fails. Farage's attention is now on how to secure national power for the first time, but if the opportunity is presented to him, it will be because everything else has failed and the whole country – as well as his voters – will need him to make a success of it. As America's founding father Benjamin Franklin put it: 'Fail to prepare and you prepare to fail.' If Farage does not develop a plan for governing as well as winning, it won't just be the blob that is to blame.
