There was a by-election yesterday for a seat on West Lothian council, and three pro-independence parties were involved.
East Livingston and East Calder by-election result (first preferences):
SNP 42.5% (+1.7)
Conservatives 24.4% (+2.4)
Labour 21.8% (-9.1)
Greens 7.6% (+4.0)
Liberal Democrats 2.7% (-)
Independence for Scotland 1.1% (+1.1)
This will be portrayed as an SNP gain from Labour, although as is often the case in the wacky world of STV by-elections, things are not quite as they seem – the SNP comfortably won the popular vote in the ward last time around. Nevertheless, the result is still dreadful for Labour – their vote share has slumped, and they’ve dropped from second place to third. The swing from Labour to SNP is a little over 5%, although it must be remembered the baseline for these numbers is the 2017 local elections, when the SNP underperformed expectations somewhat.
Independence for Scotland are continuing to contest by-elections, which presumably means they think they’ll have a place in the Scottish party system going forward – which seems unlikely given that Alba’s policy programme is so similar to their own. However, they can at least claim that they’ve achieved a semi-respectable result this time, markedly better than the 0.4% they recorded on their first outing in June.
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