Rivals hail by-election result

Eric Joyce and wife Rosemary celebrate the result

Labour has been celebrating its victory in the by-election for the Westminster seat of Falkirk West.

However, the Scottish National Party, which came second, hailed its performance as a success, with a 16% swing to the nationalists

Labour's Eric Joyce retained the seat but saw the party's general election majority of almost 14,000 votes reduced to 705.

The party heirarchy rejected nationalist assertions that the result signified voters were turning away from Labour and pointed to the record low turnout.

Falkirk West

Lab: 8,492 (43.54%)

SNP: 7,787 (39.93%)

Tory: 1,621 (8.31%)

SSP: 989 (5.07%)

Lib Dems: 615 (3.15%)

They dubbed the nationalists the permanent also-rans of Scottish politics and insisted that there was little real change in underlying voting patterns.

The biggest factor, said Labour, was a differential turnout which affected some parties more than others.

Scottish Secretary Dr John Reid said: "This is the 10th Westminster by-election in a Labour held seat that the SNP have lost."

The nationalists said they were delighted with the performance of candidate David Kerr.

David Kerr was 705 votes behind Mr Joyce

SNP Leader John Swinney said: "The SNP delivered a sensational surge from New Labour in Falkirk West.

"That is a stunning result by any standards and means that Scottish politics in the run up to the general election is a tight two horse race between the SNP and New Labour.

"We are on the way up - they are on the way down."

If repeated in a Westminster general election, the SNP said the result would deliver 24 Labour seats in Scotland, including those of Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Social Security Secretary Alistair Darling.

Tory candidate Craig Stevenson was third, with the Scottish Socialist Party's Iain Turner relegating Scottish Liberal Democrat Hugh O'Donnell to last.

The Falkirk West seat had been made vacant by the decision of Dennis Canavan, who held the seat for Labour in 1997, to stand down.

Mr Canavan said he would political career as an independent MSP.

He broke ranks with the party after it failed to select him as a candidate for the seat at the Scottish Parliament elections.