UK Labour gets rare boost with surprise election win

Labour scored a surprise win in a Scottish Parliament by-election on Friday, giving UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government a rare moment of celebration.

Labour won with 8,559 votes, overturning the comfortable majority of 4,582 earned by the Scottish National Party (SNP) in 2021.

The SNP were favourites going into the election, but saw their vote collapse by almost 17 percent, netting them 7,957 votes and delivering a heavy blow to the party that runs Scotland.

"People in Scotland have once again voted for change," Starmer wrote on X.

"Next year there is a chance to turbo charge delivery by putting Labour in power on both sides of the border," he added.

Starmer and his government have seen their popularity plunge since coming to power last July.

Labour secured 31.6 percent of the vote, slightly down on the 2021 election.

But they capitalised on a fractured opposition, with the anti-immigration Reform UK party making inroads into Scottish politics for the first time with 26.1 percent of the vote.

The Conservative party continued its dismal recent electoral record, gaining just six percent of the vote.

The ballot was held following the death of SNP lawmaker and government minister Christina McKelvie in March.