Labour faces Scottish by-election test

Veteran Labour MP David Marshall has indicated he plans to step down from his Glasgow East seat for health reasons, a move that would trigger another by-election.

Although Labour enjoy a large majority in the seat the party fears it may lose the seat to a resurgent SNP.

So far this year Gordon Brown's party has already lost the apparently safe constituency of Crewe and Nantwich and cam fifth behind the BNP in Henley.

Following the resignation of Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander over failing to declare campaign donations and a record poll low Labour will be desperate not to lose the seat.

On Sunday Alexander said the row over donations had become a "distraction" from the real issues and that she has been the target of a political witchhunt.

"I acted in good faith upon the basis of written advice from the parliamentary authorities", she said in a statement to TV cameras at Labour's Scottish headquarters in Glasgow.

David Marshall, 67, is believed to be stepping down for for health reasons.

Labour said he had "indicated" to local activists that he was planning to stand down with deteriorating health.

At the last election he had a majority over the SNP of 13,507 - but no Labour seat in Scotland can be viewed as safe after the shock of the 2006 Dunfermline and West Fife by election, where the Liberal Democrats overturned a majority of 11,500.