The Cowdenbeath by-election result is in. From The Courier:
Alex Rowley (Lab) 11,192 (share 55.79%, +9.33%)
Natalie McGarry (SNP) 5,704 (28.43%, -13.17%)
Dave Dempsey (C) 1,893 (9.44%, +2.45%)
Denise Baykal (UKIP) 610 (3.04%)
Jade Holden (LD) 425 (2.12%, -1.77%)
Stuart Graham (Victims) 187 (0.93%)
James Trolland (SDA) 51 (0.25%)
In a result that should surprise nobody, Labour scores a big win in its heartland on a pretty low turnout of 34%. We lost our deposit, which was also, to be honest, eminently predictable. Cowdenbeath is not what you would call the most fertile Liberal Democrat territory at even the best of times. We don’t have a local councillor there at the moment so the odds were against us. Being beaten by UKIP is never pleasant, but not as annoying as if they had saved their deposit.
There are always positives and in this case it’s the fact that a very talented young woman, Jade Holden, has had some national exposure. She’s performed very well in the television and radio debates and has been recognised as one to keep an eye on for the future. She has excelled in everything she’s been asked to do to the extent that the Scottish party Executive went out of its way last week to recognise her fantastic performance. She’s part of a new generation of extremely talented young people who will be running the party in 20 years time, a thought which fills us old timers with great comfort.
As far as the SNP were concerned, well, they couldn’t win this seat in their best election ever, in 2011. It would have been a particularly spectacular victory if they had pulled it off. However, they will be disappointed to have lost so much of their vote. A comparison with where they were in 2007 doesn’t really work because the boundaries have changed so much, but to have lost 13% since 2011 shows that the more they talk about independence, the less people like it.
Elsewhere there were two local by-elections that I have seen results for. The first, in Essex, was a very frustrating near miss in Southend. Christopher Bailey finished just 55 votes behind the Conservative, who held on to the seat. An 8.2% swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat is good news, though. A UKIP vote, though, of almost 21%, is not.
The result in full:
Conservative 743 37.2% (-12.5%)
Chris Bailey (Liberal Democrat) 688 34.4% (+3.5%)
UKIP 418 20.9% (+14.9% since 2011)
Labour 149 7.5% (-1.7%)
There was no Liberal Democrat candidate in the Motherwell North ward of North Lanarkshire District Council which is not unusual for that part of the world. Labour won by a mile, with a whopping 68.2% of the vote, with a small swing from the SNP. UKIP were nowhere, finishing fourth behind the Conservatives. It goes to show that their message just isn’t resonating in Scotland.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
