Glasgow’s Labour group has held onto the seat of its former leader, Malcolm Cunning, who died in September.
At a by-election yesterday, John Carson was elected as a councillor for the Linn ward ahead of Chris Lang-Tait, the SNP candidate.
Cllr Carson, a union rep, who has pledged to fight for the local community, picked up 2,227 first preference votes compared to 1,702 for Mr Lang-Tait.
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Green candidate Jen Bell came third with 409 votes and Pauline Sutherland, for the Conservatives, was fourth. The turnout was 23.3%.
The result means that Labour once again has 36 councillors in Glasgow while the SNP has 37. Cllr Carson joins Cllr Catherine Vallis as a Labour representative for Linn, which also has two SNP councillors, Paul McCabe and Margaret Morgan.
After the announcement, the Glasgow Labour group said on social media that Cllr Carson and Cllr Vallis will be “a formidable team for Linn and will build on Malcolm’s legacy in the community”.
Cllr Vallis tweeted: “This was a campaign that was equal parts tough and brilliant. Thank you to everyone who joined #TeamLinn and played a part in clinching this victory.
“I cannot wait to tackle the next four and a half years with @PostmanCarson, we will do our best to do Malcolm proud.”
Cllr Cunning, who led the Labour group from August 2020 until just after the council elections in May this year, died at the age of 65. Following his death, tributes flooded in from across the political spectrum.
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