 | 'While this result may provide some comfort for the Lib Dems this morning, their relief will be short-lived. While they ran a shameless anti-Government campaign here in a Westminster by-election, they are part of the discredited government at Holyrood and so cannot hope to repeat this feat at a Scottish election.' SNP leader Alex Salmond MP, 10 th February 2006. |  |
LIB DEM Willie Rennie savoured his stunning triumph in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election in style yesterday by thanking the voters.
Mr Rennie joined the party's Scottish leader Nicol Stephen and UK leadership hopefuls Sir Menzies Campbell and Simon Hughes on a walkabout in the town centre.
The party pulled off one of the biggest by-election shocks in Scottish political history on Thursday night by overturning a Labour majority of 11,562.
Mr Rennie stressed his victory was down to hard graft and earning the trust of the voters and claimed Labour had taken their support for granted.
'It has been a fantastic campaign,' he said.
'We have engaged with the issues that matter in the constituency instead of taking the people for granted.
'There was so much spin and not enough substance coming from Labour that people just got fed up.
'We knew we could win this by-election, but we had to engage with the voters and work extremely hard to earn the voters' trust.'v
When asked by one journalist when he would stop smiling, Mr Rennie replied, 'I'm not sure I ever will!'
Meanwhile, Scottish Secretary Alistair Darling was forced to admit a combination of local issues had torpedoed Labour's bid to retain the seat.
Just like Labour candidate Catherine Stihler on Thursday night, Mr Darling stressed the party would learn the lessons of its defeat.
He dismissed suggestions the by-election loss reflected badly on Chancellor Gordon Brown and said he accepted full responsibility for the way the campaign had been run.
'This is a by-election we should have won,' he said.
'We did not win. It was a bad result for us. There is no getting away from that.
'What is perfectly obvious is that our vote did not come out enough, and the opposition vote coalesced around the Liberal Democrat candidate.
'I accept entire responsibility for the conduct of this election campaign.
'It was the local stuff that kept coming back to us: the bridge, the hospital, the town centre.
'I'm not saying for one moment that Iraq isn't an understandable concern among voters here and elsewhere, but what was coming back to us over and over again were the local issues.'
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said, 'Of course we are disappointed about the by-election result.
'We always want to win.
'We should have won up there.
'But we did out best, we put our case and we'll get on now with delivering the programme that we promised at the last election.'
As he paraded down the High Street in Dunfermline, Mr Rennie was surrounded by jubilant party supporters.
Most observers believed Labour would hold what has until now been one of its safest seats in Scotland.
The by-election was called following the death last month of Rachel Squire from cancer.
She won the newly-created seat at the general election in May last year.
The Lib Dems claimed just two days before the count they could win it, but few actually believed they would do so.
As the count began, it quickly became clear a major shock was on the cards and by 12.35 am it was all over.
It was Labour's first defeat in a by-election in Scotland since 1988.
Mr Darling appeared to point the finger at the Scottish Executive, where the transport minister in the devolved coalition is a Lib Dem, for failing to close down the row over proposed increases in Forth Road Bridge tolls.
'The problem was that the Scottish Executive has a process to follow through so they could not put the thing to bed,' he said.
However, the Lib Dems saw it differently.
Mr Hughes said, 'It is a success against Labour in Gordon Brown's backyard.v
Mr Hughes continued, 'It is a hugely important result against the SNP (who were third) and it is the end of the Cameron honeymoon.
'The result here for the Tories is worse than their average over the last eight years.'
Sir Menzies added the result will boost the party.
'The important thing is that this is Labour's heartland,' he said.
'You would think this is a seat that would be totally impervious, that Labour would win in all circumstances, yet they have not been able to do that.
'I think that shows fundamental disillusionment with Labour in Britain and more particularly here in Scotland.'
Later in a radio interview Sir Menzies said the result raised questions about Mr Brown's succession to Number 10.
'Gordon Brown is the neighbouring MP,' he said.
'I think there will be some questions asked because people will say, ÔWell, if Gordon Brown is going to be the prime minister, and he can't hold a traditional Labour seat on his own back doorstep then just how is he going to go down in the leafy glades of Essex or Surrey or places like that?''
Mr Stephen said it was 'a sensational result.'
The result was a poor one for the SNP, which saw its vote go up by just 2% and even for the Tories, who saw their share drop by 2.5%.
The SNP said the Lib Dems used 'weapons of mass deceit.'
SNP leader Alex Salmond claimed, 'While this result may provide some comfort for the Lib Dems this morning, their relief will be short-lived.
'While they ran a shameless anti-Government campaign here in a Westminster by-election, they are part of the discredited government at Holyrood and so cannot hope to repeat this feat at a Scottish election.'
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