Falkirk West By-election 2000

'Anyone in the Labour Party heirarchy who believes that new Labour is popular in Scotland should get out more.' Ian Davidson, Labour MP for Glasgow Pollok, 17 th March 2000.

Lines drawn for bitter by-election

By Murray Ritchie in Herald 3 rd October 2000

Mr Dennis Canavan, spurned by Labour for the Scottish Parliament despite a quarter of a century as a Westminster MP, deliberately engineered the contest in Falkirk West but denied his motive was revenge.

He made his announcement on the day Labour suffered its worst poll rating against the SNP for 23 years as System Three for The Herald showed the Nationalists' level in Westminster voting intentions and with a huge lead in both Holyrood votes.

Jubilant Nationalists under new leader John Swinney promptly drew comparisons between Falkirk West, where Mr Canavan piled up a Labour majority of 13,783 in 1997, and other recent by-elections.

In Hamilton South the SNP managed a swing of 23% against Labour after Defence Secretary George Robertson took a peerage and went to Brussels as secretary general of Nato. In the Holyrood by-election in Ayr, which the Tories won from Labour, the SNP swing from Labour was 21%.

In Falkirk West, the SNP needs "only" 18% from Labour to take the seat. It would be a huge propaganda coup and would represent the Nationalists' greatest central-belt success since Glasgow Govan in 1988.

Labour will point to the Nationalists' failure in the 1997 Westminster contest in Paisley South where they managed only 11% - but that was before the higher profile of Scottish politics caused by the Home Rule.

Falkirk West is complicated by the personal dispute between Mr Canavan and Labour's leadership which rejected him for Holyrood as "simply not good enough." Mr Canavan's response was to stand as an independent and win the biggest majority of any MSP.

-Oct 3rd