Sarwar: Labour by-election win could be as ‘seismic’ as Winnie Ewing’s 1967 victory

Defeating the SNP in today’s crunch by-election could prove as ‘seismic’ for Labour as Winnie Ewing’s 1967 win for the Nationalists, Anas Sarwar has claimed.

The Scottish Labour leader declared that winning the Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat could prove to be a ‘launch pad’ for Labour returning to power and ousting the SNP.

Voters will go to the polls today after disgraced former Nationalist MP Margaret Ferrier was removed by constituents for breaking coronavirus rules.

The SNP is now desperately defending its 5,230 majority, and leader Humza Yousaf has admitted that Ms Ferrier’s behaviour and the turmoil engulfing his party had created a ‘difficult context’ for the Nationalists.

With the SNP mired in scandal and open civil war around Mr Yousaf’s leadership, a police probe into its finances and the Scottish Greens’ influence in the Holyrood Government, Mr Sarwar said the by-election could become a ‘staging post’ for Labour’s own resurgence.

He compared it to the historic 1967 Hamilton by-election won by Mrs Ewing – the SNP’s first post-war victory, which is widely believed to have been the catalyst for the party’s rise to its current position in government.

Asked if a Labour win could signal the impending downfall of the SNP, Mr Sarwar said: ‘We’ve had seismic by-elections before and it’s fair to say that the Labour Party in recent times has been on the wrong side of those seismic by-elections.

‘You can talk about the by-election that Winnie Ewing won here many years back, you can talk about the Glasgow East by-election that we lost to the SNP. Both were regarded as seismic.

‘I believe this has the potential to be a seismic by-election, and then as a launch pad as we head towards that next general election.

We approach that with excitement, we approach that with confidence, but we do it with a hunger and desire to recognise that we have come a long way in terms of persuading people the Scottish Labour Party is back.

‘But we still have a long way to go to win and earn the trust of the Scottish people.’

Speaking on the eve of the vote, Mr Sarwar added: ‘We have been a party, it’s fair to say, that has had a really difficult 15 to 20 years in Scotland.

‘We have been a party that has looked like it is in managed decline and fighting to survive, and we have not won a parliamentary by-election in Scotland in over 12 years – so I think that emphasises the scale of the challenge that faces us.’

SNP candidate Katy Loudon agreed that Mrs Ewing’s victory ‘did have a seismic effect on our politics here’ – but said she hoped voters would not signal a downward trajectory for her party.

Winnie Ewing’s victory was the beginning of a new era for the SNP

Ms Loudon said: ‘Yes, by-elections can send messages, they can send really powerful messages.

‘The message I’m hoping that people in this constituency are going to send – because they have the opportunity to do so – is to send one to Westminster saying “we reject your Brexit, we reject your austerity, we reject the fact you ignore this constituency and Scotland unless it is politically expedient”.’

Mrs Ewing’s MSP son, Fergus, was last week hit with a week-long suspension from the party for rebelling on a vote of no confidence in Green minister Lorna Slater over her botching of the deposit return scheme.

An outspoken critic of the partnership with the Greens, he subsequently declared that the SNP no longer stands up for the people of Scotland, and has not said if he will rejoin when his punishment ends.