SSP extends its reach as Scottish Labour declines
At the Hamilton South by-election, Labour scraped in ahead of the SNP with the Scottish Socialist Party in third place with 9.5% of the vote. The Tories came in fourth and the Lib Democrats, Labour’s partners in the Scottish Parliament, came in sixth and lost their deposit.
There were three notable things about the result; the collapse of the Labour and Lib Dem vote and the strong showing for the SSP.
In June at the Scottish Parliament elections, Labour got 14,098 votes on a 55% poll, in the by-election they got 7172 just over half of their previous showing.
The SNP vote fell only marginally from 6922 to 6616. The Lib Dems fell from 1982 to 634 – a loss of around a third.
The SSP did not stand as first past the post in June, however, they stood in the Euro Elections and polled 647 on a 20% poll. This time the vote increased to 1,847; nearly three times the European election result – the percentage increased from 6.7% to 9.5%.
The disenchantment with Labour and the Lib Dems was expected given the poor image they have presented since setting up the Scottish parliament. It does however, kill off the myth that somehow voters would return to vote for Labour in Westminster elections.
In fact the collapse in Labour’s turnout has been noticeable in all recent elections. Opinion polls have not captured this reluctance to vote Labour and increasingly a willingness to vote for other parties.
Whilst Labour is being shown up for the wretchedness of all its policies, the Lib vote has collapsed due to their abandonment of principle. They have ditched their election promises. on tuition fees in order to hang on to power in Hollyrood.
The SSP by contrast has had very favourable publicity since June. Tommy Sheridan’s clenched fist at the opening ceremony was widely applauded; his speeches and interjections in Parliament have shone against poor opposition, and been widely reported.
More importantly his bill to abolish warrant sales will help end the fear and misery caused to around 28,000 people each year as a result of debt. Tommy and the SSP have been active in every local campaign since June and very large meetings have been held throughout Scotland.
The Hamilton election was important in that for the first time the media have reported the SSP as a force beyond Glasgow and interviewed other SSP spokespeople. The latest press opinion polls would give a second seat for the SSP in the Hamilton region; more seats could be won elsewhere.
The growth of publicity is being accompanied by a growth in the SSP itself. There are now 50 branches with around 2,000 members. This high growth has given problems over the summer as the central apparatus has remained weak whilst the focus is on branch building. Various conferences are planned to help consolidate the gains in the autumn.
At the June election, the Socialist Labour Party gained more votes than the SSP. At the time it was felt there was confusion – and the SSP gained substantially more votes than the SLP at the Euro elections.
The SSP has sought to have the SLP in Scotland discuss ways to come into the SSP. Unfortunately the SLP has not been responsive to these approaches and stood in Hamilton – getting 1.2% of the votes.
The refusal to join forces is despite the internal democracy of the SSP, which would allow comrades from the SLP to organise around a separate political platform within the SSP if they wished to do so.
There are already a number of currents within the SSP which organise in this way and circulate their own material. It is time to unify and build the Scottish left around the SSP.