Labour scored a thumping victory in the Cowdenbeath by-election early today, easily defending the Fife seat held by the late Helen Eadie with an 11% swing from the SNP.
They claimed the scale of the victory dealt a serious blow to the Nationalists' cause in the first major contest of a momentous political year which builds towards the independence referendum in September.
But the SNP played down the suggestion of any linkage between a by-election in a Labour heartland and the constitution.
Fife council leader Alex Rowley held the seat, beating the SNP's Natalie McGarry by almost 5500 votes, increasing Labour's majority by some 4300.
It was a decent night for the Tories, comfortably in third place, but it was a disastrous night for the Liberal Democrats who slipped behind UKIP with just 425 votes. UKIP gained 610 votes, well below the threshold of 1003 votes required to save its deposit.
Mr Rowley said it had been a "first-class, positive campaign" adding: "Everyone in Cowdenbeath constituency knew someone who had been helped by Helen Eadie over the years."
He said people had made clear that their priorities were jobs and opportunities from young people.
Ms McGarry said she remained confident of the prospects for success in September. "Many told me: 'I am a Labour voter and I won't be voting for you, but I am considering voting yes in the referendum."
At the SNP's high-water mark in 2011, they came within fewer than 1300 votes of taking this seat, the only one which Labour held north of the Firth of Forth.
At that Holyrood election, Mr Rowley failed to take back the neighbouring Dunfermline seat from the Liberal Democrats and saw the SNP come through the middle to seize it.
Labour took Dunfermline back in the by-election last October and Mr Rowley has now held the Cowdenbeath constituency.
This was pitched during the campaign as a battle between the respective records of the SNP Government at Hoyrood and Labour's running of Fife Council - a battle won decisively by Labour.
Jubilant party aides beamed that the SNP had been "gubbed" and pointed to a trend going back to a 9% swing to Labour in Aberdeen Donside last year, the Dunfermline result, and a string of council by-election victories, including one in Motherwell last night.
Cowdenbeath result
Alex Rowley (Lab) 11,192 (55.79%, +9.33%)
Natalie McGarry (SNP) 5,704 (28.43%, -13.17%)
Dave Dempsey (C) 1,893 (9.44%, +2.45%)
Denise Baykal (UKIP) 610 (3.04%)
Jade Holden (LD) 425 (2.12%, -1.77%)
Stuart Graham (Victims) 187 (0.93%)
James Trolland (SDA) 51 (0.25%)
Lab maj 5,488 (27.36%)
11.25% swing SNP to Lab
Electorate 57,687; Turnout 20,062 (34.78%, -12.51%)
2011: Lab maj 1,247 (4.86%) - Turnout 25,670 (47.29%)
Eadie (Lab) 11,926 (46.46%); Chisholm (SNP) 10,679 (41.60%); Don (C) 1,792 (6.98%); Legg (LD) 997 (3.88%); Heenan (Land) 276 (1.08%)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article