Scroll down for Friday afternoon update.
Yesterday's Glasgow North East by-election saw Labour win the seat vacated by Michael Martin after he resigned as Speaker with a majority of 8,111 over the SNP.
Comparisons with recent elections in the seat are impossible as most of the main parties have not opposed the Speaker, but it is worth noting that in every single other contested seat in Glasgow in 2005, the Conservatives were trailing in fourth place.
So the third place of Conservative candidate Ruth Davidson, who was aided by many visits from high profile shadow cabinet figures including David Cameron, is a creditable result - with the other ten candidates chasing her all losing their deposits.
The SNP will be disappointed not to have been able to pull off a repeat performance of their dramatic gaining of Glasgow East last year, although the record low turnout for a Scottish by-election of 33.0% brings comfort to no-one.
The result in full was:
William Bain - Labour - 12,231 (59.4%)
David Kerr - SNP - 4,120 (20.0%)
Ruth Davidson - Conservative - 1,075 (5.2%)
Charlie Baillie - BNP - 1,013 (4.9%)
Tommy Sheridan - Solidarity - 794 (3.9%)
Eileen Baxendale - Liberal Democrats - 474 (2.3%)
David Doherty - Green - 332 (1.6%)
John Smeaton - Ind/Jury Team - 258 (1.3%)
Kevin McVey - Scottish Socialist Party - 152 (0.7%)
Mikey Hughes - Ind - 54 (0.3%)
Louise McDaid - Socialist Labour Party - 47 (0.2%)
Mev Brown - Ind - 32 (0.2%)
Colin Campbell - Tilt - 13 (0.1%)
Jonathan Isaby
1.30pm update:
Defeated Conservative candidate, Ruth Davidson, has issued the following statement:
“I am delighted with this result. Glasgow North East was always going to be a difficult fight for us but we came third and held onto our deposit. This contrasts with similar by-elections before 1997, when Labour was the third place party it lost its deposit [both in Newbury and in Christchuch in 1993]. I personally have loved the campaign and have enjoyed meeting the great people of Glasgow North East, seeing what good is going on in local communities as well as seeing what needs to be done to improve people’s lives.
“Labour have been given another opportunity to deal with the many problems in the area – after 74 years it is time they took this responsibility seriously and I hope Willie Bain lives up to his promise to stand up for his constituents.
“I think the Conservative Party has shown that we will put up a strong fight whenever and wherever we need to in Scotland. That will very much be the case in the British General Election when it comes and I would expect the Conservatives to win seats all over Scotland.”
Shadow Scotland Secretary David Mundell congratulated her on her campaign:
"Ruth Davidson fought a good campaign and we are all very proud of her. This was a predictable success for the Scottish Labour Party, which has held the seat since 1945. Willie Bain did his best to disassociate himself from Gordon Brown and the UK Labour party, fighting the campaign instead on a local basis, as a local candidate, standing up for local issues.
“There was barely any reference to Gordon Brown in their campaign literature and their candidate even made a virtue of saying he would oppose Gordon Brown to stand up for his constituents. It therefore has little significance for the General Election, where there will be a clear choice: another five years of this tired and failing Labour Government or change, hope and optimism under David Cameron's Conservatives.”
Meanwhile, the party's leader in the Scottish Parliament, Annabel Goldie, commented on the implications for the SNP:
“This is a terrible result for the SNP and Alex Salmond must be sitting in his bunker wondering where it all went wrong. The Nationalists made no impact against Labour and their vote actually fell. “They ran a poor campaign and their poor result reflects that. It is now abundantly clear that when it comes to a British Election the SNP are irrelevant.
“The SNP’s boast that they will be the powerbrokers in a hung Parliament with 20 seats now looks utterly ridiculous. People no longer believe the Salmond bluster. At the British General Election the SNP will be irrelevant - the only way people can get rid of this tired and failing Labour Government is by voting for David Cameron's Conservatives.”
