Labour secures election victory but majority is slashed by the SNP

The party’s Iain Mckenzie took 15,188 votes – more than 50 per cent – of the votes cast, ahead of the SNP’s Anne McLaughlin on 9,280. Tory David Wilson was third with 2,784, while the Lib Dems’ Sophie Bridger was third on 627. UKIP’s Mitch Sorbie was fifth on 288.

The Nationalists had had high hopes of overturning a 14,000-majority to take the constituency after their landslide victory in last month’s Holyrood elections.

In the nearest equivalent Holyrood constituency – Greenock and Inverclyde – Labour’s lead slumped to only 511 in May as the SNP swept to an overall Scottish Parliament majority.

The by-election was held after the tragic death of former Scotland Office minister David Cairns at the age of 44.

Labour big-hitters Gordon Brown, Ed Balls and John Prescott, as well as leader Ed Miliband have been in the constituency to help shore up the party’s vote over the past month.

A Nationalist victory would have been a shock, but not without precedent after the party took the safe Labour seat of Glasgow East in 2008, overturning a majority of over 13,000.

Earlier, Mr McKenzie said: “This looks like it’s a good night for Labour.

“I think people have responded to Labour’s positive message in this campaign and they’ve turned away from the SNP’s negative scaremongering approach in droves – telling people they’re going to lose their jobs has really backfired on the SNP.”

Turnout was 45.53 per cent, down more than 17 per cent compared with the 2010 General Election.

Labour chiefs had earlier complained about SNP “dirty tactics” at polling stations and pledged to make a complaint to the Electoral Commission about the issue.

They claimed activists were prevented from quizzing voters at polling stations about their voting intentions by SNP supporters, although the Nationalists insist they were not aware of any such activity.

Earlier in the campaign, a row broke out when the Nationalists produced a secret document which they claimed showed that the local council – led by by Mr McKenzie – was set to lay off staff.

Mr McKenzie said: “Labour’’s campaign has been positive, upbeat and we’ve put across a vision of Scotland that people really want to buy into.”

The Nationalist candidate, Anne McLaughlin, did manage to cut the majority which Labour enjoyed at last year’s general election.

An SNP spokeswoman said: “We’ve run a very strong campaign which has continued the momentum of the SNP’s success across the country only six weeks ago.

“For the SNP to put such a serious dent in Labour’s majority in a former Labour stronghold such as Inverclyde is a major achievement and has been a sign of the success of the campaign Anne has run. Labour will be deeply troubled to see a large majority fall so far in an area like this.”

A Tory spokesman said: “By two to one it looks like the voters of Inverclyde have rejected Alex Salmond’s first two months, his anti-British rhetoric and his independence agenda.

“Its not the landslide Labour needed for Ed Miliband to claim the fightback has begun and considering we started in fourth place and the enormous squeeze we faced, it’s been a high credible campaign by David Wilson and the Conservatives.”

The SNP faced calls to apologise during the campaign after one of its MSPs suggested he would need “jabs” following a visit to campaign in the consituency.

Paisley MSP George Adam made the comments on social networking website Facebook following a day of campaigning in the Inverclyde by-election alongside the SNP candidate Ms McLaughlin.

After mistakenly referring to the forthcoming vote as the “Greenock and Inverclyde by-election”, one Facebook user suggested Paisley “Buddies” need passports to exit the town.

Mr Adam responded: “And jabs.”