 | 'Labour MSPs are highly nervous about the Falkirk West campaign,
fearing that the seat could be lost to the nationalists. Tommy
Sheridan's Scottish Socialist Party is also expected to run a strong
campaign against Labour.' Iain Martin in the Scotsman, 25 th November 2000 |  |
Independent MP and MSP Canavan has resigned his Westminster seat and Labour is allowed to name the date of the resulting contest.
But it emerged yesterday that staff and officials at party headquarters in Glasgow have been ordered to prepare for a quick by- election with Thursday, 21 December mentioned as a favoured date. It would be the first December by-election in 46 years.
Following the party's success in Thursday's Holyrood and Westminster by-elections in Glasgow Anniesland, the seat of Donald Dewar, the late First Minister, the leadership is determined to get the potential embarrassment of Falkirk West out of the way as speedily as possible.
One Labour MSP said: "There is no point in putting it off. It isn't the sort of issue we want hanging around much into the New Year."
The SNP is confident of victory and yesterday John Swinney, the party leader, called on Labour to formally declare the date of the Falkirk West clash. An announcement is expected in several days time.
First Minister Henry McLeish yesterday admitted that the contest would prove a "challenge" for Labour. All the opposition parties are keen to exploit Labour's discomfort over the long-running Canavan affair.
In recent weeks the left-wing MP and MSP has performed an extraordinary series of turnarounds. He initially announced his intention to resign his Westminster seat, although he will remain the independent MSP for the constituency.
After an intervention by First Minster Henry McLeish and Chancellor Gordon Brown he had a re-think and applied to re-join Labour instead. The party expelled him in the run-in to the first devolution elections last year after he was barred from standing as an official Labour candidate. He stood as an independent and won the seat with a massive majority.
However, negotiations between Mr Canavan and Labour broke down last week, and he is now pressing ahead with his original plan to force a by-election
. Labour MSPs are highly nervous about the Falkirk West campaign, fearing that the seat could be lost to the nationalists. Tommy Sheridan's Scottish Socialist Party is also expected to run a strong campaign against Labour.
But the Labour leadership spent yesterday savouring four good results in what had been described as a `Super Thursday' of by-elections. It won four contests - the two in Glasgow Anniesland and both those in West Bromwich West and Preston - with comfortable majorities.
Labour's majority for the Westminster Anniesland seat was 6,337 and for the Holyrood seat 5,376. Both majorities were substantially down on the last general election, but the Nationalists failed to come as close to Labour as they have done in other by-elections.
Yesterday, the SNP leader was forced to explain why his party had put in one of its worst by-election showings in recent years. A relatively modest swing to the Nationalists - of around only 6 per cent - disappointed activists and those running the SNP campaign.
But Scotland Office Minster Brian Wilson welcomed Labour's victories and said they represented a "disaster" for the SNP.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats slipped into fifth place in the Anniesland Holyrood contest. The party's MSPs claimed that the party had made "steady progress", but there was little sign that the party is benefiting from its presence in the Scottish executive coalition with Labour.
In England, Labour was also celebrating despite the results being marred by exceptionally low turnouts.
Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers said it was a good night for the government. But Tory leader William Hague claimed his party was making progress.
"It's the Conservatives who increased their share of the vote across the constituencies, particularly the two in England," Mr Hague said at the start of a visit to a school in Dunblane, central Scotland.
- Nov 25
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