 | 'Voters in Glasgow Anniesland, showed widespread apathy, with a record low post-war turnout for a Scottish by-election.' Murray Ritchie and Robbie Dinwoodie in the Herald, 24 th November 2000. |  |
| 'Voters in Glasgow Anniesland, showed widespread apathy, with a record low post-war turnout for a Scottish by-election.' Murray Ritchie and Robbie Dinwoodie in the Herald, 24 th November 2000. | |
Voters in Glasgow Anniesland, however, showed widespread apathy, with a record low post-war turnout for a Scottish by-election.
Only 38.5% of the electorate turned out, leaving the SNP with an impossible task to overtake the legacy of core Labour support handed down by the late first minister.
The Nationalists would have needed a swing of more than 20% to win the seats, but achieved only about 6%-7%.
Mr Dewar's seat in the Commons passed to his former constituency chairman, Mr John Robertson, while Bill Butler, the Glasgow councillor, claimed his seat in the Scottish Parliament where his wife, Patricia Ferguson, is a deputy presiding officer.
In both seats, the Tories achieved their ambition of taking third place, while Tommy Sheridan's Scottish Socialist Party pipped the Liberal Democrats for fourth place in the Holyrood seat. That result was reversed in the Westminster poll.
Although most of the electorate opted to stay away, enough turned up to ease Labour home, answering the party's call to vote as Mr Dewar would have wished. The party rushed out a polling day leaflet urging supporters to vote, saying: "You'll kick yourself if Labour lose by a few votes."
Brian Wilson, Scotland Office Minister, said the SNP's disappointment showed the Nationalists lived off grievance "and that is not the mood of Scotland at the moment".
On a good night for Labour, it also held the West Bromwich West seat of Betty Boothroyd, the former Speaker, and the Preston seat of veteran left-winger Audrey Wise, who died in September.
Turnout in all three constituencies on so-called "super Thursday" was low.
Just 27.6% of the electorate in West Bromwich West went to the polls, while turnout in Preston was reported to be 29.7%.
All three constituencies are traditional Labour seats, and the party was expecting criticism that it had failed to get its so- called "heartland" voters to the polling booths. But party sources denied the apathy reflected voters' desire to give Tony Blair's government a "bloody nose".
They compared the low figures with very high turnouts for by- elections in the final years of the Major administration, which they said showed what happened when the electorate wanted to express dissatisfaction with a government.
Dr John Reid, Scotland Secretary, said: "These are really excellent results for Labour. William Hague is the big loser this morning. Governments traditionally do badly in by-elections. In the run-up to the last general election, the Tory government was losing its safest seats to Labour with swings of up to 30%.
"If there was any public enthusiasm for the idea of William Hague as Prime Minister, the Tories would be taking seats like West Bromwich and Preston. Mr Hague will be a very worried man this morning."
Charles Kennedy, Lib-Dem leader, said: "The by-elections show no enthusiasm for Labour, no hope for the Tories and a steady advance for the Liberal Democrats."
Michael Ancram, Conservative chairman, said: "I am pleased with these results. We have shown that in Labour heartlands we are genuine challengers. These are bad results for Labour in their safest seats. It is good news for Conservative prospects at the general election."
An SNP spokesman said: "Once again we have seen a significant shift in support away from London Labour towards the SNP. On a swing of this order, the SNP would be winning some two dozen first-past-the- post seats from Labour in the Scottish Parliament."
Nationalist strategists were philosophical about their failure in Anniesland where they believed they had a real chance in the Holyrood vote. Capturing either of the seats of the iconic first minister of Scotland was a challenge just too far, they reasoned.
The SNP will now begin work today on its next battle plan for the coming Westminster by-election in Falkirk West where Dennis Canavan, the Independent MSP, has stood down after his off-on-and-off-again relationship with Labour.
The SNP believes a coup much more possible there. Voters in Falkirk returned Mr Canavan to Holyrood with the biggest majority of any MSP after Labour spurned him.
The Anniesland swing showed Labour slipping from more than 60% to just over half for Westminster, while the SNP gained 4%.
In Holyrood, there was an estimated 10% slip by Labour to just under half, while the Nationalists had a 2% gain.
How the parties fared
Scottish Parliament
William Butler (Lab) 9838;
Thomas Chalmers (SNP) 4462;
Kate Pickering (Con) 2148;
Rosie Kane (SSP) 1429;
Judith Fryer (SLD) 1384;
Alastair Whitelaw (Green) 662,
Murdo Ritchie (Soc Lab) 298;
Maj: 5376
1999 Scottish Parliament result:
Donald Dewar 16,749 ,
SNP 5756,
Con 3032,
SLD 1804,
SSP 1000,
Soc Lab 139.
Turnout 52.4%.
Lab maj 10,993.
Westminster
John Robertson (Lab) 10,539;
Grant Thoms (SNP) 4202;
Dorothy Luckhurst (Con) 2188;
Christopher McGinty (SLD) 1630;
Charlie McCarthy (SSP) 1441;
William Lyden (Family Action) 212.
Maj: 6337.
1997 general election:
Donald Dewar 20,951 ,
SNP 5797,
Con 3881,
SLD 2453,
ProLife 374,
SSA 229,
UK Ind 86,
Ref 84,
NLP 24 .
Turnout 64%. Lab maj 15,154.
-Nov 24th
Return to home page