SNP welcome “overwhelming” by-election victory Fri, 12/12/2014 The SNP has today welcomed an “overwhelming” by-election victory in South Kintyre where John Armour was returned as SNP councillor with over 62% of the first preference votes - representing a 35 per cent swing from the Tories to the SNP. The SNP took 942 of the 1515 votes cast recording a 37% increase in vote share - with more than four times the number of votes the next nearest challenger. Commenting on the win, newly elected councillor John Amour said: It is a huge privilege to be elected as the SNP councillor for South Kintyre ward. I am delighted at the overwhelming support of the communities in South Kintyre and I pledge to repay their trust by working hard for this area over the coming months and years. There are a number of very significant challenges facing the communities here and residents can rest assured that I will give nothing less than my absolute best in pursuit of a better future for this area. Mike Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, added: “John will be a first class councillor for South Kintyre. He is rooted in the area and as a community activist he knows what needs to be done for the place and all those who live there. He has been an SNP supporter for a long time but it was the Referendum that motivated him to become active in politics and that experience is common across the country. “In contrast either Labour or the Tories could find a candidate who lived in the ward, though it is a big one, and the Lib Dem MP for Argyll Alan Reid must be shaking in his shoes as he looks at this result in what was once a Liberal heartland. The writing is on the wall for his campaign next May. “The SNP is the party that can best serve local communities and speak up for Scotland. The people of Campbeltown and South Kintyre said that loud and clear yesterday with a swing to the SNP from the Tories of an extraordinary 35%.” South Kintyre by-election result (11th December) : SNP 62.2% (+37.2) Liberal Democrats 14.1% (-0.1) Conservatives 13.4% (-32.5) Labour 10.3% (+10.3) Swing from Conservatives to SNP : 34.9% Swing from Liberal Democrats to SNP : 18.7% Swing from Labour to SNP : 13.5% Although the SNP were technically defending the seat, the Tories had a commanding lead in the ward in 2012, as you can probably gather from the off-the-scale swing from Tory to SNP. Of course at a national level the SNP had a narrow lead over Labour of just under 1% in the 2012 local elections, so if we just for a bit of fun apply the above swings on a Scotland-wide basis, the SNP would be leading by the small matter of about 28%.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:47:24 +0000
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