In surprise victory, UK's Labour wins Scottish by-election after racism row

By Andrew MacAskill

LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party won a surprise victory on Friday in a fiercely fought by-election for the Scottish parliament, while support for the right-wing Reform UK party surged in a contest tainted by a row over racism.

After one of the most bitter election campaigns in Scotland, Labour won the seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse from the Scottish National Party after it became vacant following the death of a Scottish government minister.

The result provides some relief for Starmer, whose party has suffered a steep fall in support since its landslide victory in a British parliamentary election last year after it raised taxes, cut welfare benefits and got into a row over donations.

Voters rallied around Labour in the closely watched contest after Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, repeatedly referred to the ethnicity of the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who is of Pakistani heritage, drawing criticism from the other parties.

The Labour candidate Davy Russell won 31.6% of votes in the election for the Scottish parliament, which has devolved powers over issues such as health and education. The SNP won 29.4% votes and Reform finished third with 26.1% votes.

The betting odds had predicted a comfortable victory for the SNP with Labour pushed into third place behind Reform.

Russell told his supporters in the area southeast of Glasgow that his victory had "sent a message to Farage and his mob, the poison of Reform isn't us, it isn't Scotland and we don't want your division here".

REFORM SURGE

But a recent rise in support for Reform - which has overtaken Labour in opinion polls as the most popular party in Britain - suggests it is making inroads in Scotland as well as England, a year before the Scottish parliament elections are held.

John Curtice, Britain's most respected pollster, said although Labour had won an unexpected victory, the main takeaway from the result was the increase in support for Reform after the party won only 0.2% of the vote at the last election for the Scottish parliament in 2021.

Starmer may hope that the victory will ease Labour lawmakers' anxiety but the party's share of the vote is down compared with recent elections, Curtice said.

"There is nothing in this result that suggests that Labour have turned around the reverse in the polls," he said.

The support for Reform in Scotland is particularly surprising because the party's brand of low tax, anti-immigration, anti-EU politics, has often been more associated with English nationalism.

Farage visited Scotland on Monday, days after a row over an online video put out by his party that falsely claimed Sarwar had said he would "prioritise" the Pakistani community.

Labour branded the advert "blatantly racist" and SNP leader John Swinney urged voters to reject Reform's "gutter politics". Farage responded by accusing Sarwar of introducing sectarianism into Scottish politics.

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Michael Perry)