Labour and SNP respond to by-election failure

Representatives for both Labour and the SNP have announced their response to the Dunfermline and Fife West by-election last night where the Liberal Democrats won their first by-election over Labour in Scotland since the Second World War.

The Labour majority melted away, leaving a Liberal Democrat by-election victory on a swing of 16%. The Labour vote collapsed despite the high profile intervention of the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, while the SNP were up on the last election but arguably should have done better. The so-called Cameron bounce expected after the visit of the Tory leader to Dunfermline never materialised, leaving the Liberal Democrats to win the constituency.

Labour spokesman, Alistair Darling said of the result: "Clearly, from our point of view there are lessons to be learned,
both in terms of the immediate issues and also in relation to the by-election, generally, but make no bones about it,
this is a by-election we should not have lost. We did, we need to learn the lessons from that and we will."

The SNP remained upbeat despite their loss, with Alec Salmond commenting: "In a by-election, you have to present yourselves as the challengers, that was the battle that was going on between us and the Liberal Democrats.
W
hoever won that battle was going to win the seat because the Labour vote was in freefall, it was collapsing.

Eventually the Liberals won that battle of perceptions, so we only increased our vote modestly."

Scotland Today