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.”
It has been confirmed today that when the Commons returns next week, Labour will move the writ for the Glasgow North East by-election for a contest to be held on November 12th.
It is, of course, the seat that was vacated back in June by the outgoing Speaker, Michael Martin - and I have blogged previously my outrage at the fact that the people of Glasgow North East have been left without an MP for half a year.
The Conservatives selected Ruth Davidson (pictured) to contest the seat in August and she is blogging here.
Jonathan Isaby
Friday update: Today's Scotsman hints at potential clashes between Ruth and the SNP candidate, David Kerr, contrasting the facts that she is a lesbian and he is an member of Opus Dei.
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Former Sunday school teacher, Territorial Army volunteer and journalist Ruth Davidson has been selected as the Conservative candidate for the Glasgow North East by-election. The seat - vacated by the Speaker - has not been contested by the Conservatives since 1997 when our candidate won 6% of the vote. The SNP's David Kerr is expected to be Labour's main challenger for the seat.
She has kicked off her campaign with this pledge to fight honestly and cleanly:
"I, the undersigned, pledge in the Glasgow North East by-election campaign:
We encourage voters:
The writ has now officially been moved in Parliament for a by-election in Norwich North on 23rd July to replace Ian Gibson, who resigned in the wake of the Labour Party banning him from standing at the general election.
Conservative candidate Chloe Smith has been in place since January 2008 and you can read more about her campaign on her website. It's certainly good weather for campaigning at the moment, as the picture here of Chloe with MPs Richard Bacon, Alistair Burt and Owen Paterson demonstrates.
But no by-election has been called for the other vacant seat, Glasgow North East, vacated by Michael Martin. It was suggested in this morning's Daily Record that the poll there would not happen until November! I blogged at the weekend about the ludicrousness of the situation whereby people are left without an MP for months on end.
Jonathan Isaby
Andrew Morrison, an accountant and Conservative candidate for Glasgow City Council, profiles the constituency of Glasgow North East, where a by-election is due to take place over the summer, once its sitting MP, Speaker Michael Martin, resigns from Parliament next month.
Another year, and yet another key by-election in an area of Glasgow neglected by political parties and their media entourage. By the time polling day in Glasgow North East comes, a year will have passed since the SNP’s John Mason won a totemic victory against Labour in Glasgow East.
The former stomping ground where Sir Teddy Taylor cut his political teeth, Springburn, is in the heart of Glasgow North East. Once the home to many locomotive factories, the area used to produce approximately 25% of all the trains in the world. Maintaining a theme common to most inner-city areas of Glasgow, the community never quite recovered from the decline in heavy industry and manufacturing.
Glasgow North East encompasses some of the most deprived wards in Glasgow City Council on the basis of a host of typical measurements: the percentage of owner-occupied houses, the number of households with no access to a car, the proportion of people who have never worked or claim benefits are all worse than average compared to the city as a whole. In many respects, the area is even more deprived than Glasgow East.
Continue reading "A preview of the forthcoming by-election in Glasgow North East" »
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