Scots have ‘voted for change’, says Starmer following Labour’s surprise win

Sir Keir Starmer has said people in Scotland have “voted for change” following Labour’s shock win in the Hamilton by-election.

The Prime Minister congratulated his winning candidate Davy Russell and looked ahead to next year’s Scottish Parliament election, saying it is a chance to “turbo charge delivery”.

Mr Russell took the seat vacated by the death of Scottish Government minister and SNP MSP Christina McKelvie.

Posting on social media on Friday morning, Sir Keir 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.

“I look forward to working with you.”

Labour’s candidate, who is the deputy lord lieutenant of Lanarkshire, beat out SNP candidate Katy Loudon – who fell to her third defeat since 2023.

The win comes against the backdrop of national polls which place Scottish Labour in third place behind the SNP and Reform UK – and will undoubtedly give a boost to Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s bid to become first minister in next year’s election.

The Nigel Farage-led Reform UK saw a surge which took them into third place, just 800 votes away from the SNP, but fell short of expectations that they may place second.

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice also reacted to the results, saying his party is “delighted”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, 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 by-election and just a few hundred votes of defeating the SNP, so it’s an incredible result.”

At the election count earlier, Tice told the PA news agency he was “thrilled to bits” with the result.

When the votes were counted, Russell polled 8,559, with Loudon coming second on 7,957, ahead of Reform’s Ross Lambie, who secured 7,088 votes.

Speaking to PA after the declaration, Sarwar said: “I think people need to change the script, because we’ve proven the pollsters wrong.

“We’ve proven the commentators wrong, we’ve proven the bookies wrong.

“We’ve proven John Swinney wrong and so many others wrong too.”

In the final weeks of the campaign, the First Minister said it was a “two-horse race” between the SNP and Reform, but Sarwar asked what it says about a Government that has been in power for 18 years and “all it has to offer in a campaign is vote SNP to stop Farage”.

Russell had faced criticism for his perceived lack of media appearances, but Sarwar said such arguments were borne of “an element of classism and elitism”.

Speaking from the stage after his win, Russell said: “Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse has voted tonight to take a new direction with Scottish Labour.

“Like the people here in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, and right across Scotland, we all feel we have been let down by the SNP.”

The newly-minted MSP also hit out at Reform, saying the win “sent a message to Farage and his mob tonight – the poison of Reform isn’t us, it isn’t Scotland and we don’t want your division here”.

While First Minister Swinney said Loudon had “fought a superb SNP campaign” and that he was “clearly disappointed” they were unable to win.

“Labour won by an absolute landslide in this area less than a year ago – we came much closer tonight, but the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse have made clear that we still have work to do,” he added.

“Over the next few days, we will take time to consider the result fully.”