Scottish Labour's Davy Russell pulled off a shock victory in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election.

The Scotsman

Scottish Labour's Davy Russell pulled off a shock victory in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election. Anas Sarwar said it was now "game on" for Labour to secure victory and remove John Swinney from power at next year's Holyrood election.

Transcript

00:00I'm David Boll, the Deputy Political Editor of the Scotsman.

00:02I'm here in Hamilton where Davie Russell, the Scottish Labour candidate,

00:05has won a shocking victory over the SNP in this by-election.

00:10It tells them they'll need to change their tactics if they want to win.

00:13I mean, that's the bottom line, that it's hard work and listening to people,

00:18and then it's up to me now to deliver.

00:21Everyone had it down as an SNP victory and Labour tussling with reform for second place,

00:26but Davie Russell managed 8,559 votes ahead of Katie Loudon of the SNP,

00:32who managed 7,957.

00:35A quite narrow victory for Labour, but they'll absolutely take this.

00:38This sets them up for next year's Scottish Holyrood election perfectly.

00:43All the talk was up about whether Labour were done, basically.

00:47Their chances of winning that election next year were toast.

00:50Anna Sawa telling me that it's game on now for the Holyrood election.

00:55We've proven the political commentators wrong, we've proven the bookies wrong,

00:59and we're going to continue to do what we need to do to change the lives of people here in Scotland.

01:02Today, the people of Hamilton, Larko, and Soros have done,

01:04is laid the first brick in a path of a Scottish Labour government in 2026,

01:09where we replaced the SNP.

01:11He's had a lot of stuff thrown at him, personal attacks from reform.

01:16Davie Russell has had some attacks from his opponents.

01:19Anna Sawa, again tonight, calling it out as elitism.

01:22But Davie Russell is going to be the newest MSP in Holyrood,

01:25and it really puts Labour on course to really challenge the SNP at next year's election.

01:31It's a huge victory, with a backdrop of the UK government's unpopular policies

01:35that we've heard constantly from John Swinney and other opponents,

01:38that it was going to harm Labour.

01:40John Swinney, just the other day, was telling everyone that Labour were out of the race.

01:43But clearly, they've pulled off quite a remarkable victory here in Hamilton.

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