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Hello, I'm Anu Shekeleon, Britain editor at the New Statement and host of this podcast,

and joining me down the line I have Ben Walker, our senior data journalist and Chris Deerin,

our Scotland editor. So just for some context for our listeners who may need a reminder,

the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by election came about because Margaret Ferrier, the seats former

SMP MP, broke COVID rules by not self-isolating when she was experiencing symptoms,

and travelled from Westminster by trade back home knowing she tested positive.

She was unseated by a recall petition earlier this year, and that's how the

by-election came about. Now the results are in, the swing to labour was higher than expected at 20.4%

with the SMP's support plummeting and the Conservatives losing their deposit.

Michael Shanks, the labour candidate, now the new labour MP for the seat, has a majority of

over 9,000. Ben, you've been looking at the numbers in this by-election for a while now.

What do you think their significance is? Thank you for having me. This was significant in a way

perhaps we didn't expect. So, okay, so the thing with Rutherglen and Hamilton West is

it's voted labour before. It voted labour under Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 by a bit

merely tiny margin, but it's still voted labour. It's not the safest seat for the SMP

amongst the what, 50 or so seats that they have. But the swing we got last night,

yesterday, the swing we got yesterday was on a scale that we just did not expect. So bear

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