The SNP should have walked Glenrothes – yet Labour came out on top. Sure, the 6,737 majority is lower than the 10,644 with which they won it three years ago – but the SNP since took the Holyrood seat and the council. After Salmond’s win in Glasgow East, winning Glenrothes should have been a formality. So why did Labour triumph? For starters, their candidate, Lindsay Roy, is excellent – a local head teacher (my mum used to teach at his school!) and seen as being a non-partisan figure. So this diluted the rather less-than-popular Labour brand.
The bailout of the two Scottish banks undermined the SNP’s message, reminding Scots of the benefits of the union. It put a spring in Brown’s step, and he campaigned twice there – he is a Fifer, after all. Perhaps most importantly he dispatched his wife, Sarah, unaccompanied on the campaign trail. She’d always make unannounced visits, so the press wouldn’t try to ask her questions, and did this at least seven times – visiting more than anyone from Westminster. Labour’s majority may have shrivelled, but this is the first campaign Brown has won in a long time. So he has good reason to rejoice tonight. But in my view, it was Sarah wot won it. Let’s see if she can do a fourth term.
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