Labour has spent Friday celebrating their victory at the Glasgow North East by-election with a majority of more than 8,000 over the Scottish National Party.
Willie Bain, the new MP for Glasgow North East, is the latest in a long line of Labour members who have represented the area for the past 74 years. In his victory speech, Mr Bain commented: "This is a resounding victory for Gordon Brown and for Labour."
Mr Bain, joined by Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy and Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray, celebrated the win on Friday morning. Mr Bain said: "This was a disastrous result for Alex Salmond. I think people were very clear that the SNP have not treated Glasgow well."
Jim Murphy, the Scottish Secretary, added: "The fact is the SNP are now a novelty that has worn off. The people in Scotland are seeing through the SNP. The people of Glasgow have spoken for the whole of Scotland."
Only 33% of the electorate decided to vote in the election – the lowest in Scottish by-election history. Labour were given 12,231 votes – nearly three times as many as the SNP’s 4,120.
The Conservatives came in third spot with 1,075 votes, while the BNP failed to retain their deposit and finished fourth with 1,013 votes. Tommy Sheridan, representing Solidarity, came fifth while the Liberal Democrats had to settle for a lowly sixth.
The SNP, on the other hand, are insisting the result is their strongest performance in the seat for 35 years. The party’s defeated candidate, David Kerr, said: "We believe we can bring change. When people give us a chance we show we can bring change. But people weren’t seemingly willing to give that chance a change. It was still a good result for the SNP."
Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon - the SNP’s deputy leader - said Labour had lied their way to victory. She said: "Labour’s campaign was full of half truths - that is probably a polite way of putting it - and downright distortions of the truth."
For most of the election night, a BNP breakthrough into third place seemed more than possible. However, in the end, they had to settle for fourth - only 62 votes behind the Tories. When the party’s candidate Charlie Baillie decided to make a speech following the results, many of the other candidates and the majority of the assembled audience decided to either leave or heckle.
Meanwhile, former baggage handler turned politician John Smeaton collected just 258 votes.
See a full breakdown of the results here
