Scottish Labour’s Michael Shanks has won the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection in an overwhelming victory over the SNP that the party leadership declared “seismic”, and a clear demonstration that Scotland could lead the way in delivering a Labour government at Westminster at the coming general election.
In a result that exceeded Scottish Labour expectation, Shanks beat his closest rival, the SNP’s Katy Loudon, by 17,845 votes to 8,399 – a majority of 9,446 and a resounding swing of over 20%.
The SNP is holed below the waterline. Losing two to one is not something you walk away from. I expect that the next Holyrood elections in 2026 will return a Labour, or Labour-Tory unionist coalition, government.
There are some reasons why the result in this particular seat would be worse than the general trend (covid rule breaking etc) but still, that’s an absolute rinsing.