SNP 'earthquake' as Labour suffers big losses in Glasgow East by-election

Last Modified: 25 Jul 2008
By: Keme Nzerem, James Blake

The earth moves, not just in Glasgow East but across the entire political landscape after the scale of Labour's defeat last night.

There was a much higher-than-expected turnout, with more than 26,000 people voting, or 42 per cent of the electorate.

Glasgow East has always been a safe Labour seat with a majority of 13,500 votes, but last night the Scottish National Party turned that over, to win by just 365 votes.

Labour were pushed into second place and the Conservative party came a surprising third, jumping ahead of the Liberal Democrats.

The result represents a 22.5 per cent swing from Labour to the SNP, enough to sweep away Gordon Brown from his constituency if repeated in a general election.

Today's by-election defeat is the worst yet in a series of disastrous polling setbacks for Gordon Brown, prompting the Conservative leader, David Cameron to call for a general election.

But Brown repeated his mantra that he is "getting on with the job" and "taking people through difficult times."