 | 'Mason, never the bookies favourite to win in the third-safest Labour seat in Scotland, pulled off a spectacular by-election victory that will go down in nationalist folklore alongside Govan and Hamilton and could still signal the downfall of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.' Torcuil Crichton, Chief UK political correspondent in the Herald, 25 th July 2008. |  |
It took a recount but it was still a result to shake the country to the core. Shortly after 2.20am on Friday morning John Mason and the SNP pulled off a spectacular by-election win in Glasgow East with a majority of 365 votes in what had been a rock-solid Labour seat.
The figure had crept up marginally after Labour, who had been expecting a far heavier defeat, demanded a recount over the confusion that may have been caused by a rival candidate sharing the same surname as their candidate, Bailleston MSP Margaret Curran.
By the time the tellers had done their business again, making no material difference to the outcome, the politicians were beginning to absorb the enormity of what had happened.
Even before the votes were counted the thumbs- up and the smiles said it all. As John Mason entered Tollcross leisure centre sports hall at 12.45am the votes were still being verified, but the SNP candidate had already written his page in the annals of Scottish political history.
Mason, never the bookies favourite to win in the third-safest Labour seat in Scotland, pulled off a spectacular by-election victory that will go down in nationalist folklore alongside Govan and Hamilton and could still signal the downfall of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.
Loud cheers from supporters accompanied Mr Mason across to the tellers where even the early boxes had left experienced Labour politicians grim-faced.
"It just feels absolutely tremendous and it will sink in in due course," said Mr Mason. "This is going to have a huge impact. There has been lots of interest outside Scotland in this by-election and it is going to send a message everywhere."
The place that by-election bell will toll the loudest is Gordon Brown's No 10 den. The Prime Minister wakes up today with his leadership of the Labour Party and the country questioned anew. Even in its heartland seats in the west of Scotland, where Labour rode out the tide of Thatcherist Conservatism in the 80s and 90s, its grasp on the voting base is now in question.
For Alex Salmond, who staked his reputation on the by election, it was a vindication of a strategy to make the cost of living an issue right through the campaign.
"In aspirational working-class wards the turn-out was high. These people had a tight year and it looks as if they have decided to kick the government," said one senior Labour politician. This would suggest that Alex Salmond's decision to campaign on the rising cost of living had resonated with the constituents and that Labour's message of "standing up for the East End" had fallen short. A year into office in Holyrood the SNP has proved that there are no no-go areas for its vote in Scotland.
"I thought we had a brilliant candidate and the right candidate for the seat but sometimes the votes aren't there," said David Cairns, the Scotland Office Minister who ran the campaign in Glasgow.
The official line from the SNP and Labour was that the vote was too close to call but with all the ballot boxes in and and officials confirming the turn out at 42.25% it was the SNP supporters who were smiling, cheering and backslapping as they awaited the result.
Turnout was strong in the SNP candidate John Mason's Garrowhill ward, indicating that his party had succeeded in getting its core vote out. On the hottest day of the year so far it seemed that Labour's vote had either stayed away or switched sides.
Margaret Curran, a former Holyrood minister who represents part of the constituency as an MSP, was cheered and held in a protective huddle of Labour politicians as she entered the hall. Shattered after a gruelling three-week campaign she looked near to tears.
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