 | 'My list of previous convictions includes voting for dangerous revolutionary measures such as benefits for the children of single parents and grants for students from low-income families. If that disqualifies me from being a Labour candidate for the Scottish Parliament, then I honestly wonder where the Labour Party is going.' Falkirk West Labour MP, Dennis Canavan, 18 th June 1998. |  |
Falkirk is unlikely to be Tony Blair's favourite town at present. After David Kerr came within a whisker of beating Labour's Major Eric Joyce in the Falkirk West Westminster by-election, SNP activists in the town really had something to cheer about when Andrew Graham won the Kinneil & Whitecross ward from Labour.
Kinneil & Whitecross is in the parliamentary constituency of Falkirk East. Like Dennis Canavan in Falkirk West, Falkirk East's MP Michael Connarty also fell foul of Rosemary McKenna's Network Cabal which carried out a witch hunt of nationalists and left-wingers, culling them from the list of potential Scottish parliament candidates. Michael Connarty withdrew his candidature after it was leaked to the press that he had failed his interview.
The Kinneil & Whitecross ward takes its name from Kinneil House by Bo'ness and the village of Whitecross which lies between Linlithgow and Polmont. Apart from Kinneil House itself, the ward is also home to Birkhill Claymine and the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.
In 1977, the SNP won a crushing victory over Labour in Falkirk District, but the socialists regained control in 1980. In the 1992 District Council elections, Labour and the Scottish National Party were almost neck and neck in Falkirk. Labour took 16 wards and 43.0 % of the vote while the SNP obtained 14 wards and 39.3 %. The balance of power was held by the 3 Conservative and 3 Independent Councillors. In the 1995 Unitary Council elections, however, Labour made big advances and won outright control of the new Council. It won 23 wards with its vote up by 9.0 % to 52.0 %. The SNP representation was reduced to 8 councillors, although their actual vote only fell by 2.7 % to 36.6%.
The 1999 council elections saw the number of wards in Falkirk reduced from 36 to 32. However, Labour was the only party to have its representation reduced as it saw its vote fall by almost 10 %, from 52.0 % to 42.5 %. Although it remained the largest party with 15 wards (down from 23 in 1995), from having an overall majority of 10, it was reduced to being in a minority of two compared to the combined opposition. The SNP increased their seats from eight to nine, Independents went up from three to five, the Conservatives stayed steady on two wards and an Independent Labour candidate won Denny.
In 1999, Kinneil & Whitecross was won by Labour's James Milne with 888 votes (43.2 %) giving him a majority of 81 (3.9 %) over the SNP's Andrew Graham (not Robert Gordon as originally stated) who won 807 votes (39.3 %). The Lib Dems took 11.4 % and Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party won 6.0 %.
Labour were not confident about holding the ward. In 1995, in Laurmont East, Labour lost by one vote only because two Labour votes were disallowed because officials had forgotten to frank them. In the June 2000 by-election in the successor ward of Polmont, which neighbours Kinneil & Whitecross, Labour were beaten into fourth place with just 11.8 % of the vote.
The SNP won the ward in the by-election, increasing their vote by no less than 11.2 % in the process. The new SNP councillor for Kinneil & Whitecross is Andrew Graham, who came within 81 votes of winning the ward from Labour in 1999. In the by-election he took 570 votes, 50.5 % of those cast, allowing him to win the ward from Labour with a majority of 82 votes.
The unsuccessful Labour candidate was David Richardson, who took 43.2 %, exactly the same as Labour's share in 1999. With neither the Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives standing, the fight for third place was between the Scottish Socialist party, and the Socialist labour Party, who had taken 6.0 % here in May 1999. The SSP's Mhairi McAlpine (also Westminster candidate for Falkirk East) took 3.6 % while the SLP's Claire Watt took 2.7 % of the vote.
The SNP victory here means that Labour only have four councillors more than the SNP in Falkirk, compared to 15 more in April 1995. The fact that Labour are now in a minority of four on the council puts their administration at risk.
The turnout was 34.2 %, down from 61.6 % in 1999.
Following the by-election, the political composition of Falkirk Council is 14 Labour, 10 Scottish National Party, five Independents, two Conservatives and one Independent Labour.
I am grateful to Cllr Rob Munn, Cllr Beth Eaglesham and Isabel Hutton for information , pointing out errors and sending the results.
The SNP have captured the Kinneil & Whitecross seat in Falkirk Council with a handsome 12 per cent swing from Labour.
Cllr Andrew Graham is an energetic young family man who lives in Bo'ness with his wife and two children. A former Scots Guardsman who saw active service in the Falklands, he is currently employed in the Education Service locally.
The SNP gains brings the Falkirk Council representation to Labour 14; SNP 10; Tories 2; Independents 6.
| 18 th January 2001 | 6 th May 1999 | ||||||
| Andrew Graham |  |
570 | 50.5 % | James Milne |  |
888 | 43.2 % |
| David Richardson | |
488 | 43.2 % | Andrew Graham | |
807 | 39.3 % |
| Mhairi McAlpine |  |
41 | 3.6 % | Scott McArthur |  |
235 | 11.4 % |
| Claire Watt |  |
30 | 2.7 % | Clare Watt | | 124 | 6.0 % |
| SNP gain from Lab | SNP maj. | 82 | 7.2 % | Lab win | Lab maj. | 81 | 3.9 % |
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