SIR KEIR Starmer hailed a “seismic” by-election victory by humiliating the Scottish nationalists and declaring it a big step towards Downing Street.
The Labour leader saw a 20 per cent swing which experts say could see the party pick up as many as 40 seats north of the border if replicated in a general election.
Sir Keir Starmer was jubilant after Labour won a crucial by-election victoryReuters
One upbeat shadow Cabinet Minister last night told The Sun said there was “no area of the country we can’t win in now”.
Party insiders said they would have their work cut out to calm down MPs and supporters being too triumphalist at their annual conference in Liverpool starting today.
Sir Keir, who visited the Rutherglen constituency yesterday, said: “They said that we couldn’t win in the south of England and the north of England, and we did it.
“They said ‘you’ll never beat the SNP in Scotland‘ and Rutherglen, you did it. You blew the doors off!”
He added: “It was a big step in the right direction, an important one.
“This was a must-win for us, and the size of the win, I think, vindicates the positive campaign that we ran.”
The by-election was called after SNP MP Margaret Ferrier was ousted by her constituents after she broke lockdown rules.
The party has also been dogged by a police probe into financial misconduct within the party which saw ex-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrested by cops.
SNP leader Humza Yousef said: “The buck does absolutely stop with me.”
But election expert Professor Sir John Curtice said: “This is Labour apparently now able to put on the kind of performance that, frankly, it has not been able to put on at any stage since the independence referendum.
“And if – obviously it’s a big if – the swing since 2019 were to be replicated across Scotland as a whole, you are talking of Labour being back to having about 40 seats and the SNP being back down to not much more than half a dozen seats.”
PAMichael Shanks MP won a landslide by-election victory for Labour, trouncing the SNP[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
