Leaving aside her rather dire performances at First Minister's Questions, donations declarations and overall lacklustre leadership, Wendy Alexander's latest pronouncement on a by-election in South Lanarkshire on Thursday rather defies belief:Wendy Alexander welcomed the Labour’s victory in Cambuslang East by-election today after the count was completed as “an excellent result for the party”.
“What is particularly satisfying is Labour won the seat from the SNP, something they have significantly failed to do in any council by-election since the May elections. “This result is a major blow to the nationalists and their inflated claims about their own by-election performances. A seat held by the SNP has gone to Labour. It is clear that voters in Cambuslang have not bought the SNP spin and realise it's Labour that best stands up for their interests."
The full Labour spin can be read on the Scottish Labour website by clicking on the headline above.
Err ... an excellent result? The actual result was the Labour vote DOWN 22%, SNP unchanged, Conservatives down 6% and the Liberal Democrats the biggest gainers of the four parties, gaining 8%. The "independent" vote was some 600, which explained the rest of the Labour decline.
"Quirk of STV is that if a minority councillor in a ward dies or resigns, the largest party in the multi-member ward usually picks up the seat - this ward was 2 Lab, 1 SNP last year."
Given their huge lead in Cambuslang last May, Labour should have won this by-election by a mile. Instead, they squeaked home. If Wendy Alexander thinks a 22% drop in the Labour vote is an "excellent result," it shows the dire state Scottish Labour is now in.