THE SNP’s Hamilton by-election candidate has called out her Labour rival’s “deafening silence” on the UK Government’s “broken promises”.
Katy Loudon, an SNP councillor in South Lanarkshire, has said Labour candidate David Russell and party leader Anas Sarwar can’t “be trusted” to deliver on their election promises.
As the campaign for the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse Holyrood seat heats up, after the death of SNP MSP Christina McKelvie, Labour accused Loudon of being “parachuted into the seat by the party.
The poll is expected to be a bellwether of the likely outcome of the upcoming Holyrood elections in 2026, with both the SNP and Scottish Labour gunning to take the seat.
Loudon accused Russell, a former business associate of Rangers boss Barry Ferguson and Sarwar’s brother Asim, of failing to speak out against Labour cuts that will harm “countless families” in the constituency.
This includes cutting millions in disability payments, overseeing a £300 increase in energy bills despite promising a £300 cut, taking away the Winter Fuel Payment from 900,000 Scottish pensioners, and failing to deliver on the promise to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
“Anas Sarwar’s silence over the Labour Party’s broken promises proves that neither he, nor his party, can be trusted to do right by the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse,” Loudon said.
“In government, Labour has maintained the awful two child cap, taken away vital payments from pensioners and overseen soaring household bills - all within a matter of months.”
It comes as 14 Scottish Labour MSPs voted against a Holyrood motion calling on the UK Government to “immediately scrap” its looming welfare cuts on Wednesday. Eight MSPs did not vote on the motion, including Sarwar, who claimed this was because he was at the First Minister’s summit on tackling the far right.
However, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, Scottish LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, and Alba Holyrood leader Ash Regan, who attended the summit, backed the motion.
Loudon added: “Astonishingly, Labour MSPs are in lockstep with their London bosses - with most of their MSPs backing the £5 billion of Labour cuts to disability support while others, like Sarwar, avoided voting altogether.
“The people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse deserve better than a Labour candidate who will look the other way, like Anas Sarwar.
“A fairer Scotland, free from Westminster cuts, is possible under the SNP, and I will be taking that message to doorsteps across Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.”
It comes as Labour attacked Loudon for not living in the constituency area boundary. The councillor lives in Rutherglen but has close family living in the area.
She previously stood as the SNP’s candidate in the Westminster Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election in October 2023, losing the seat to Labour’s Michael Shanks.
A Labour source told the Daily Record: "It's a long campaign. I hope Katy Loudon can keep remembering her new local values are for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse - and not Rutherglen and Hamilton West, or any of the other seats she has tried to be selected or elected in.
"Labour's Davy Russell lives in the community and is the local choice - not the SNP's parachuted in candidate".
The SNP defended Loudon’s record and insisted she would “champion” the priorities of voters in the area.
