Reeves announces £15bn in transport investment outside of London
The Chancellor's main aim of her trip to Manchester was to promise fifteen billion pounds worth of investment in transport projects in the North and West of England as well as the Midlands.
There's been criticism today from the Conservatives that this is simply a re-announcement of funds that were already committed.
Reporter: Andrew Misra
Camera: Ken McCallum
Producer: Harry Peet
Additional newsgathering: Meghan Hadfield, Penny Ayres
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STV News
16 minutes ago
- STV News
Labour win shows how far SNP still has to go to rebuild trust with voters
The result from Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse is a big surprise. Great for Labour, grim for the SNP, good enough for Reform. Hamilton is the home of big by-election shocks. Last night might not be in the same league as Winnie Ewing's historic Hamilton by-election win in 1967 but it is still a surprise. Almost everyone I spoke to expected the SNP to win. The pollsters predicted that the SNP were ahead across Scotland, the bookies made the SNP odds on favourite, but the voters in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse backed Labour. And at elections, it is the voters that count. So how did they pull it off? Labour's candidate, Davy Russell, made a point of spending his time chapping doors, talking to voters rather than talking to the media. His opponents accused him of dodging debates and avoiding scrutiny. To give him his due he did an interview with me and it was a robust interview. He would probably have got an easier time in studio debating his opponents. Labour won on the back of what they reckon is the biggest ground campaign they have ever mounted in a Scottish election. They spent weeks knocking on doors. Hundreds of activists, MSPs, MPs, councillors and staff canvassed support and listened to voters concerns. All that led to data on how people intended to vote, it helped the party know where its voters live. Yesterday more than 250 Labour campaigners knocked on the doors of 8,000 voters, sometimes there or four times cajoling them, pestering them out to the polling stations. In the end they got 8,559 votes. That's quite a return – they knocked up 8,000 voters and got 8,559 votes. That is an incredible Get Out the Vote campaign. Davy Russell's knuckles must be red raw after chapping that many doors. And what of the others? The SNP will be hurting today. Not only did they lose a close colleague, the much loved Christina McKelvie, whose death led to this by-election. But they also lost the a close contest by just 602 votes. Politically they had momentum going in to this by-election. STV News Hamilton by-election result. Opinion polls, council by-election wins, Labour Government difficulties over pensioners winter fuel payments and more. First Minister John Swinney has spent almost as much time on the campaign trail as Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar in the last few weeks. This result is a big block to SNP momentum and a big boost to Scottish Labour. It shows just how far the SNP still has to go to rebuild trust with voters. Reform will be buoyed that they came close enough to make it a three-way contest, but they will inevitably be a bit disappointed they didn't match their recent victories from Runcorn and English council elections. 26% shows that they are a serious player in Scottish politics going in to next year's Holyrood election. The Conservatives set out to save their deposit, aiming for 1,500 votes. They managed that with a few votes to spare, but it was a low bar to set and the final result shows just how much they are being squeezed by Reform. And amid all the analysis of where the votes went don't forget the scunner factor. That has been a big part of this election campaign: just how annoyed and angry people are with politics and politicians. I heard it time and again on the streets talking to voters. And that comes through in the result too – more than half of voters stayed at home. And that is not to play down the turnout. 44% is not bad in a by-election. The scunner factor played in to the hands of Reform to some extent, but it is something all the political parties must face up to and address. Reconnecting with voters and re-engaging is crucial ahead of the Scottish Parliament election next May. And this result shows that it really is game on for next May. And finally for everyone who asked during this by-election 'Where's Davy?' Now you know, he was chapping doors, thousands of them all over Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. And next week he'll be chapping on the door of Holyrood as the newest Member of the Scottish Parliament. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Reform and indy will be at the heart of our debate for years
Of course, by now you already know the result, so you'll know which of the following scenarios and their consequences are the most accurate. But let me start with what the national polls tell us ought to have happened, by-election peculiarities – which I'll come to – notwithstanding. The SNP should have won with around 33% of the vote, down significantly on the 46.2% it won in 2021, with Labour in a narrow second on around 28% of the vote. Reform should have come third with just under 20% of the vote, while the Conservatives should have collapsed to under 10% of the vote. The rest of the vote, around 10%, will have been split among the Greens, Liberal Democrats, and myriad minor parties and independents. But by-elections rarely work out this way, even when the national polls are accurate. Firstly, voters are more likely to have voted in protest than they are at national elections, which may well help Reform in this case. As Jamie, a service engineer from Hamilton, told a focus group run by More in Common, it's 'time to give someone else a chance,' even if he thinks Nigel Farage is an 'a***hole'. Read more by Mark McGeoghegan Secondly, turnout will likely have collapsed. In the Hamilton and Rutherglen West by-election in October 2023, turnout fell by 43% compared to the 2019 General Election. A similar decline here would see around 15,600 voters who would otherwise turn out in a national election stay at home instead. Given that voters turning out to vote Reform as a protest against both the SNP and Labour governments are likely to be more motivated than SNP and Labour voters, this may also advantage Reform. In fact, assuming predictions based on national polling would otherwise have been accurate, Reform's vote will only have to have been marginally more resilient for it to finish ahead of Labour and narrowly behind the SNP. Factor in that first peculiarity of by-election campaigns, and such a scenario is hardly far-fetched. On the eve of the by-election, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused the First Minister, John Swinney, and journalists of manufacturing Reform's competitiveness in the seat. Nothing could be further from the truth, and a Reform underperformance yesterday will have been more surprising than it coming second. It has demonstrated its strength in a succession of local by-elections, the latest of which saw it beat Labour to come second behind the SNP. Whether or not Reform came second yesterday, its performance will shape the narrative in Scottish politics going into next year's elections in conjunction with its UK-wide polling lead (it has led in 25 consecutive polls going back to the beginning of May) and strong results in recent local elections and Parliamentary by-elections in England. Ultimately, regardless of yesterday's result, the spectre of Nigel Farage looms over Scottish politics. There are three broad scenarios. Firstly, that Reform performed to its Scotland-wide polling, confirming that it is on course to win between 15 and 20 seats in next year's Scottish Parliament election. Secondly, that it did overperform, perhaps coming second, leading to the next 11 months to being dominated by the SNP seeking to present next year's elections as a choice between the SNP and Nigel Farage, and a bitter fight between Reform and Labour for status as the main challengers to the SNP. Thirdly, that it underperformed, in which case the SNP will be quick to emphasise divergence between Scottish and English politics. In any case, the SNP will use the prospect of a Reform government at Westminster to try to increase the salience of the constitutional question, attempting to return independence to the heart of the Scottish political agenda ahead of next year's elections and the following UK general election. It knows that that is its best bet for winning back pro-independence voters who have swung to Labour in recent years. Replacing Humza Yousaf with John Swinney may have stabilised the SNP's support, but the party not really recovered in any meaningful way. The longer Reform leads in UK-wide polls, the more likely that narrative will be to gain purchase among the independence-supporting electorate. Strong Reform showings in Scotland will reinforce the sense that they could win power in 2029; weak performances will emphasise the ways in which Scottish and English politics may be diverging. Both provide hooks for the SNP. The spectre of Nigel Farage looms large over Scottish politics (Image: PA) The bigger question is whether this leads to a change in the constitutional deadlock. Some recent polling suggests that support for independence may have edged up. Norstat recently recorded its first Yes leads in three years, finding Yes ahead by seven points in the wake of Reform's strong showing in the English local elections. Survation still has No ahead by two or three points, down from leads of seven or eight points a year ago. The data is not conclusive, and we should be cautious of hypotheticals around whether developments will change voters' minds – we had enough such polls around Brexit and Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister that never bore out. But the prominence of Reform UK and Nigel Farage in UK politics is a gift to the SNP and the independence movement, regardless of how they performed yesterday or how they perform north of the Border in the coming year. If Anas Sarwar is frustrated with his opponents' and the media's "obsession" with Reform UK, he should get used to that feeling – they'll be at the heart of Scottish political debate for years to come. Mark McGeoghegan is a Glasgow University researcher of nationalism and contentious politics and an Associate Member of the Centre on Constitutional Change. He can be found on BlueSky @
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
Reform has landed in Scotland
Yet again a Scottish by-election has kicked the political establishment in the shins. Yes, in Scotland, after 18 years in power, the SNP is currently the political establishment and its defeat at the hands of Labour with a 602 vote majority – and Reform UK close behind in third place by just 869 – votes demonstrates the disruptors are making an impact. Labour's unexpected and narrow victory makes it clear the SNP is likely to struggle to form a Government when the full Holyrood election is held next May. That election will be held under a proportional voting system which, were Reform UK to poll anything like the 26.1 per cent achieved in Hamilton by its candidate Ross Lambie, could give the party a healthy group of MSPs in the mid-twenties and possibly make them king-makers. For the Conservatives, the evening was bad but not quite as embarrassing as they privately feared. Polling only 1621 votes, Tory sighs of relief were audible from Gretna to John O'Groats once they realised their vote share was 6 per cent, saving a lost deposit had it fallen to below 5 per cent. Still, it remains impossible to say if the Conservatives have yet bottomed out. Tory candidates face being squeezed across Scotland from all ends by the other pro-UK parties so long as regaining trust with voters remains the Conservatives' biggest challenge. Despite the best efforts of Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay providing more focussed stewardship, the Conservatives still risk falling below their worst ever Holyrood vote in 2011 when Annabel Goldie's campaign achieved only 12.4 per cent. The SNP leadership will need to look hard at their strategy of building up Reform as a 'far right' bogeyman and talking-up the prospect of a two-horse race between the SNP and Reform. The First Minster, John Swinney, had suggested the only way to stop Reform was for Labour voters to get behind the SNP; he begged them from the pages of a Labour-supporting tabloid to come over to the nationalists. Instead of reducing Labour's support by this tactical ploy, he received a stinging political slap in the face as his pleas only served to give Reform credibility as a serious challenger while Labour activists flooded the constituency on the last day to get their vote out. What is also clear from the by-election is that making out Nigel Farage as a vote loser in Scotland does not hold water. The same used to be said about Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson, but the truth is there has always been a Scottish market for big personalities that parties of the Left have sought to demonise. Photos of the Clacton MP were all over the Reform UK's publicity materials, and he was regularly promoted via social media – and did the unthinkable of visiting the constituency during the campaign. Yes, he's a marmite figure, but he's been a marmite figure for much of his political life in most of England too, and now has the best ratings of all the party leaders. After the initial realisation during polling day that they simply did not have the shoe leather on the ground to push for second place, Reform UK's supporters quickly realised they had actually achieved an amazing result. Their candidate, Ross Lambie, had polled 7,088 – which next to Labour's 8,599 and the SNP's 7,957 resulted in a highly creditable three-way fight. Coming from only 7.8 per cent in the Hamilton and Clyde Valley Westminster constituency boundary at last year's general election to achieve 26.1 per cent this time round is a very strong showing. Reform UK has landed in Scotland.
