The SNP has gained the Avondale and Stonehouse seat on South Lanarkshire Council after Leigh Payne was elected at the ninth stage of counting in the by-election held on Thursday 17 September.
Payne led the first-preference vote with 1,025 votes, or 27.6%, ahead of Labour's Hannah Miller on 743 and Reform UK's George Hobbins on 727.
The contest was triggered by the death of Independent councillor and South Lanarkshire Provost Margaret Cooper.
SNP wins after nine stages
Scottish council by-elections use the Single Transferable Vote system, under which voters rank candidates and votes can be transferred as candidates are eliminated. South Lanarkshire Council confirmed that Payne was elected at stage nine.
- Leigh Payne — SNP: 1,025 (27.6%)
- Hannah Miller — Labour: 743 (20.0%)
- George Hobbins — Reform UK: 727 (19.6%)
- Ade Aibinu — Conservative: 393 (10.6%)
- David Glennie — Liberal Democrats: 357 (9.6%)
- Michael Grant — Scottish Greens: 303 (8.2%)
- Andrew Forde — Independent: 107 (2.9%)
- Gary Allan — Your Party: 45 (1.2%)
- Ken Thomson — Alliance for Democracy and Freedom: 12 (0.3%)
Turnout was 23.2%.
SNP gain from Independent
The result is an SNP gain from Independent because the vacancy was created by the death of Margaret Cooper, who had represented the ward since 2012 and was re-elected as an Independent in 2022.
At the 2022 full council election, Avondale and Stonehouse returned Cooper as an Independent alongside the SNP's Elise Frame and Labour's Susan Kerr. Payne also contested the ward for the SNP in 2022 but was not elected.
Reform takes almost one in five first preferences
Reform UK's George Hobbins finished third on first preferences with 727 votes, equivalent to 19.6%. Reform had not contested the ward in 2022, so there is no directly comparable Reform vote share from that election.
The result comes two months after Reform UK won the neighbouring Larkhall by-election in South Lanarkshire.
Conservatives fall to 10.6%
The Conservatives finished fourth with 393 first-preference votes, or 10.6%. In the 2022 full election the party received 21% of first preferences in the ward. Comparisons should be treated with caution because the 2022 election filled three seats while this by-election filled one.
Labour's 20.0% first-preference share was broadly similar to its 2022 share, while the Greens polled 8.2%.
John Swinney welcomes result
SNP leader and First Minister John Swinney congratulated Payne following the declaration, describing her as the latest SNP councillor for Avondale and Stonehouse and calling the result “great news”.