"This community has also sent a message to Farage and his mob tonight."
Despite polling third behind the SNP and Reform in recent weeks, Labour pulled off a shock upset by winning the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election yesterday.
Davy Russell, the constituency’s newly elected Member of the Scottish Parliament, used his acceptance speech to send a strong message to Reform.
He first said that local people had been let down by the SNP, before saying: “This community has also sent a message to Farage and his mob tonight.
“The poison of Reform isn’t us, it isn’t Scotland and we don’t want your division here,” he said, to applause from the crowd.
He added: “Reform have no real answers to the issues we face and they can’t beat the SNP here or replace them across Scotland.”
Russell made a playful jab at the Reform candidate, saying: “And for Ross [Lambie], can you see me now.”
A local resident of Quarter, a small former mining village, Russell ran a community-focused campaign.
Though criticised for skipping a BBC Scotland TV debate, he was active in his community, with a senior Labour MSP remarking on how well he had gone down on the doorstep.
In his speech last night, Labour’s newest MSP said: “I said in this campaign that I will put this community, our community first. I will work every single day to do that.”
Labour won 8,559 votes, 602 votes ahead of the SNP. Reform won 7,088 votes.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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