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Scottish Labour is celebrating an “incredible” win in a pivotal Holyrood byelection, beating the incumbent SNP and fighting off Reform UK’s “racist” campaigning, in a result that confounded predictions and will boost the party ahead of next year’s Scottish parliamentary elections.
Voters in the central Scotland seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse rallied round the popular local candidate, Davy Russell, after a toxic campaign during which Nigel Farage launched an unprecedented series of personal attacks on the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, labelled racist by the SNP leader, John Swinney.
In his acceptance speech, Russell told jubilant supporters: “This community has sent a message to Farage and his mob: the poison of Reform isn’t us, it isn’t Scotland and we don’t want your division here.”
Posting on social media on Friday morning, Keir Starmer said people in Scotland “have once again voted for change".
“Next year there is a chance to turbo-charge delivery by putting Labour in power on both sides of the border.”
The surprise win comes against the backdrop of national polls that placed Scottish Labour in third behind the SNP and Reform, with the party bearing the brunt of voter unhappiness with unpopular UK Labour polices.
The SNP had been the clear favourites to hold the seat after a fiercely contested campaign called after the sudden death of the popular SNP MSP Christina McKelvie from breast cancer, but were beaten into second place, with Reform UK following close behind in third.
As Reform seemingly gained ground from both the SNP and Scottish Labour in recent weeks, speculation grew that it might push Sarwar’s party into third place.
But in the end, with a reasonably high turnout for a byelection of 44.2%, Scottish Labour reaped the rewards of its highly targeted campaigning and well-organised get-out-the-vote operation to pull off an unexpected victory, winning with 8,559 votes.
The SNP’s Katy Loudon came second with 7,957 votes, narrowly beating Reform UK’s Ross Lambie on 7,888. The Scottish Conservatives were left trailing on 1,621 votes.
A buoyant Sarwar said it was “an incredible night”, having proven the pundits, pollsters and bookies wrong.
He told reporters that voters had sent three strong messages: “First, people want a UK Labour government to go further and faster in improving their lives and I think that’s a clear message to them.
“Secondly, they’ve had enough of this SNP government: after 18 years they’ve let communities around the country down.
“Third, they’ve rejected the politics of Nigel Farage and Reform and today the people and Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse have laid the first stone in the pathway to a Scottish Labour government next year.”
Asked about the increasingly personal attacks he endured during the campaign, Sarwar said: “Nigel Farage looks at someone like me and it goes against his values and it makes him angry. What the vast majority of people in Scotland see is someone who is one of their own, is a Scot and is working hard to change the country.”
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Reform UK’s Richard Tice, who attended the count, insisted that his party was “thrilled to bits” with the result, and that third place still represented “a massive boost” for the party, which has gained momentum in Scotland since the general election.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday morning, he said: “It’s truly remarkable.
“We’ve come from nowhere to being in a three-way marginal, and we’re within 750 votes of winning that byelection and just a few hundred votes of defeating the SNP, so it’s an incredible result.”
The SNP contingent left the count speedily after the results announcement, with the party leader and first minister, John Swinney, later applauding Loudon on X for her “superb campaign”, adding: “We have made progress since the election last year but not enough. We still have work to do and we will do it.”
In 2021, McKelvie won with a majority of 4,582, with Labour winning the corresponding Westminster seat with ease in last year’s general election, but on the doorstep voters voiced discontent with both the SNP government at Holyrood and the Labour government at Westminster.
Scottish Labour canvassers worked hard throughout the campaign to counter the major dissatisfaction with UK Labour policies they encountered. “Winter fuel payment comes up on every door,” said one senior figure mid-campaign.
But speaking to the Guardian in the final phase of the campaign, senior Labour sources said that – while their canvassing showed more people were saying they would vote Reform than ever before – they remained confident in their strong ground operation with targeted leaflets and targeted ads on Facebook and YouTube. Some voters have been visited four times by Labour canvassers as well as Westminster and Holyrood politicians who visited the constituency throughout the campaign.
“I think we have the better field operation and we’ve been around people’s doors. We’re hungry for the votes and people see that,” they said.
