Labour loses Glasgow East to SNP

Labour has sensationally lost the Glasgow East by-election to the SNP.

The nationalist party overturned a majority of more than 13,000 to win by just 365 votes on Friday.

On a reduced turnout of 42.25 per cent, the SNP's John Mason won 11,277 votes to 10,912 for Labour's Margaret Curran.

The Conservatives were third with 1,639 votes while the Liberal Democrats lost their deposit on 915 votes on a hugely reduced share of the vote.

Mason, a 51-year-old accountant and city councillor said the people of Glasgow had sent a "message that it is a time for change".

MSP Curran said she would continue to fight against inequality in the east end of Glasgow from her seat in the Scottish Parliament, which was a "Labour cause".

Scotland Office minister David Cairns said Gordon Brown's future would not depend on the result of a single by-election.

He blamed the defeat on the difficult economic circumstances and Labour's failure to select a candidate early enough.

"This was a bad result for us but overwhelmingly what people were saying to us was this was about the economy," he said.

However the result is now certain to begin a fresh period of introspection within the party over the prime minister's leadership.
Gordon Brown used a speech at the opening of the Labour Party policy forum near Warwick to appeal to activists to "remember what a Labour government can achieve".

'Sensational victory'

First minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond hailed a "sensational" victory for his party, and said there were now no safe Labour seats in Scotland.

Speaking at a press conference in Glasgow on Friday afternoon, he said voters has sent a message to Brown. "That message is 'change your policy or change your job'," he said.

"We can't allow the country to drift into recession. We need action - action against the rising prices which are hitting family budgets, actions against the energy costs, action to inject more demand into the economy.

"That's the changes that are required and that's what the SNP will be using its political influence to secure."

Salmond went on: "It was London Labour that was found wanting and the SNP in Scotland that emerged victorious."

He pledged that the SNP would "march to the sound of the priorities of the people of Scotland".

"If we keep doing that then we're going to take some stopping come the general election, the Scottish elections to come and the independence referendum in 2010."