Hamilton shows some progress but ‘not enough’ for SNP says John Swinney

The SNP has not made “nearly enough progress” in recovering from its “disastrous” election defeat last year, leader John Swinney has said in the wake of the Hamilton by-election.

Scottish Labour unexpectedly won the South Lanarkshire constituency, seeing off competition from both the SNP and Reform.

The SNP had largely been expected to retain the seat, having held it since its creation in 2011.

But in the end 8,559 votes were cast for Labour’s Davy Russell compared to 7,957 for the SNP’s Katy Loudon.

Swinney said the by-election proved his party had “got into the running again” after losing a swathe of seats to Labour in last year’s general election – but acknowledged it needed to do more to convince voters ahead of next year’s Scottish Parliament election.

He told reporters: “The SNP got back in contention, we’ve made some progress based on the general election last year, but not nearly enough progress. We’ve got to focus on that to make sure we can win in 2026.”

With just 11 months to go until the next Holyrood vote, the by-election came at a crucial time for both Labour and the SNP.

Labour’s victory will help it reestablish some much-needed momentum after the actions of the UK Government had put a dent in its support.

The SNP’s share of the vote in the Hamilton race was similar to its nationwide share last summer, proving the party had stabilised after a tumultuous time involving two leadership changes and an ongoing police investigation in party finances had impacted their support.

However, support dropped by 16.8 percentage points since the 2021 election.

Labour also saw its support drop from the 2021 vote, but only by two percentage points. It was enough to overturn the SNP’s previous majority of 4,582 votes.

Former SNP minister Alex Neil has called for Swinney to quit. Posting on X, he said: “Poor byelection result for the SNP despite having the best candidate. It shows that the opinion polls appear wide of the mark. Most importantly it shows the current SNP leadership needs to be replaced urgently.”

Reform UK came third in the by-election with 7,088 votes, indicating it could be on track for a strong showing next year.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, came fourth with just 1,621 votes – a fall of 11.5 percentage points from 2021.