 | 'The word earthquake is overused. But this is an earthquake. Glasgow East was one of Labour's safest seats and now it has fallen to the Scottish Nationalists.' Bob Roberts in the Daily Mirror, 25 th July 2008. |  |
| 'The word earthquake is overused. But this is an earthquake. Glasgow East was one of Labour's safest seats and now it has fallen to the Scottish Nationalists.' Bob Roberts in the Daily Mirror, 25 th July 2008. | |
GordonĘBrown was hit by disaster this morning as he lost the Glasgow East by election.
In a shock result, voters backed the Scottish Nationalist Party by 11,277 votes against 10,912 for Labour, overturning a majority of 13,507.
The defeat came in one of Labour's safest seats in the country and will spark a crisis in the government.
Labour MPs are expected to call for Mr Brown to quit. The Tories will claim it is a sign the Government are discredited and a general election should be called.
There was a swing of around 23% against Labour which left the Scots Nats of a majority of 365.
Cabinet Minister Douglas Alexander acknowledged it was a bad result. But he said: "No by-election is irretrievable. I can give you an assurance that at the next general election we will be working hard to return a Labour MP."
Labour minister David Cairns who was in charge of the campaign blamed the credit crunch. He said: "People are feeling the pinch.
"We are the Government and we are the ones people look to sort it out." The first sign of disaster came as polls closed in the by-election amid signs of a higher-than expected turnout.
Polling staff said a survey at 9pm suggested a turnout of 42% meaning many anti-Labour voters had turned out.
Labour had been pinning their hopes on a low turn-out where only the core vote came out.
But the sun shone on voters going to the polls and Labour's main challengers, the Scottish National Party, said there had been encouraging levels of support.
SNP candidate John Mason was one of the first to cast a vote.
The serving Glasgow councillor issued a warning shot to Brown, saying: "If we win this seat, it's an earthquake."
Labour's Margaret Curran, a former Holyrood minister who represents part of the area as an MSP, campaigned up to the wire, including a blitz of the checkouts at an Asda supermarket in the Parkhead area.
She said: "As I promised at the beginning, I am working right up to 10pm, taking nothing for granted and working for every vote.
"I think Labour has had a very positive message for the voters and I have had a very positive response to the message."
Labour sent out around 400 activists to bolster support in the morning and said early indications pointed to a strong turnout.
The candidates for the other main parties were Liberal Democrat Ian Robertson, who is a local schoolteacher, and Tory Davena Rankin, a union activist.
VERDICT
The word earthquake is overused. But this is an earthquake.
Glasgow East was one of Labour's safest seats and now it has fallen to the Scottish Nationalists.
The Crewe and Nantwich by-election defeat was understandable because it came in the middle of the row over the abolition of the 10p tax rate.
The Henley by-election defeat was never in doubt because it was true blue Tory heartlands.
Glasgow East will send the message to Labour MPs that unless they change they will lose their seats and their jobs at the next election.
That will spur them to act. And that looks likely to mean the end to Gordon Brown.
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