Scottish Labour’s victory in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election has been described as a “message to Farage and his mob” by the triumphant candidate.
In a result that confounded predictions, Scottish Labour’s Davy Russell won the seat from the SNP, formally held by minister Christina McKelvie before she died in March, by a majority of 602 votes.
Addressing the vote count in his acceptance speech, Russell told 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.”
The results in full were as follows:
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- Labour: 8,559 (31.60 per cent)
- SNP: 7,957 (29.40 per cent)
- Reform UK: 7,088 (26.10 per cent)
- Conservative: 1,621 (6.00 per cent)
- Scottish Green: 695 (2.60 per cent)
- Liberal Democrat: 533 (2.0 per cent)
The contest saw a reasonably high turnout for a by-election of 44.2 per cent, in the wake of a toxic campaign that saw Reform UK’s messaging labelled as “racist”.
Nigel Farage’s party launched an unprecedented series of attacks on Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar. In one video advert, Reform added text to footage of a speech delivered by Sarwar in 2022 at an event celebrating the 75th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence, claiming the Scottish Labour leader wanted to “prioritise the Pakistani community”.
John Swinney, the SNP first minister, described the video as “blatantly racist”.
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In the end, Russell secured 8,559 votes, beating SNP candidate Katy Loudon by a margin of 602. Reform UK’s Ross Lambie came in third with 7,088 votes, only narrowly behind the SNP.
The Scottish Conservatives finished a distant fourth with 1,621 votes.
In his victory speech, Russell condemned both the SNP’s record in office and the rise of Reform UK, declaring: “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.
“They have broken the NHS, wasted our money and after nearly two decades they don’t deserve another chance.”
He added: “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.”
Speaking after the result was declared in the early hours on Friday, Sarwar urged the media to “change the script” on Scottish Labour. Nationally, Sarwar’s party is polling behind the SNP — by as much as 10 points according to some polls.
The Scottish Labour leader 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 had insisted it was a “two-horse race” between the SNP and Labour, and that only his party could beat Reform and “stop Farage”.
Reacting to the result, Swinney insisted his party has “made progress” after its dismal performance at the 2024 UK general election (when the SNP won 9 seats) but “not enough”.
He commented: “Congratulations to Davy Russell on his election as MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. Katy Loudon fought a superb SNP campaign.
“We have made progress since the election last year but not enough. We still have work to do and we will do it.”
Reform’s candidate, Ross Lambie, insisted that the 2026 Scottish parliament elections are now a “three-horse race” after his party’s strong performance.
Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, said his party had “lit up Scottish politics” after finishing third in the by-election.
He posted to X (formerly Twitter): “Tories have effectively disappeared in Scottish politics only just holding their deposit.
“We [at] Reform UK have achieved a seismic result and lit up Scottish politics, in a close 3 way marginal, just a few hundred votes in it.
“Huge congrats to Ross Lambie and his great team.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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