SCOTTISH Labour don’t seem to want to win a critical upcoming by-election.
To those inclined to a conspiracy mindset, they seem to have thrown in the towel in the fight for the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse seat in Holyrood.
The campaign has been baffling; their candidate, Davy Russell, a disaster.
He is, in the Scottish Labour campaign myth, an ideal candidate.
He is a self-made man, having worked his way up to the highest levels of local government from a start fixing the roads for Strathclyde Regional Council before going into business with the likes of Anas Sarwar’s brother, Asim, and Rangers chief Barry Ferguson.
But for all this, Russell can’t string a sentence together. Social media clips promoting his candidacy from Sarwar and the Scottish Labour media team have to be edited extensively, so poor is Russell’s oratory.
One bizarre clip shows him shoulder to shoulder with Sarwar at Raploch Bowling Club in Larkhall where Russell took part in a tournament with teams from across South Lanarkshire. The joke was that it wasn’t the only serious competition he was taking part in.
Another features the pair at the Hamilton Races (two-horse race) and they also held a press call at the Larkhall Circuit, which bills itself as “UK's newest, premier outdoor karting circuit”. The punchline for Russell’s go-karting outing was that in this “race”, only he can “beat the SNP”.
As an advert for all the fun one can have in this part of Scotland go, this ain’t bad, but it betrays a lack of seriousness in Labour’s approach to the election.
Another big competition for @DavyRussell4HLS today at Raploch Bowling Club in Larkhall. We’re rooting for him today and on the 5th June! pic.twitter.com/oPqWiqIgT9
— Anas Sarwar (@AnasSarwar) May 17, 2025
And it would be less insulting if Russell appeared to actually be interested in campaigning.
His refusal to take part in a televised debate led STV political editor Colin Mackay to speculate that Russell “can’t be bothered”.
Perhaps party bosses feared that their rhetorically-challenged candidate would have been exposed in a head-to-head debate with rivals who could get from the beginning to the end of a sentence without judicious editing.
I am told that we can expect a few appearances from Russell on our screens as we approach polling day on June 5. These will be must-watch programmes for his rivals looking to seize on any gaffe the Labour man seems virtually certain to make.
In a different universe, the Hamilton by-election was Labour’s chance to ride the wave that took them to an astonishing comeback in Scotland.
As it stands, Scottish Labour were fighting an uphill battle from the minute voters got a better sense of the government they’d just elected.
Now, it seems like they’ve decided to run their most high-profile Scottish race since the General Election with their feet tied together.
