Labour defeats SNP after council sexual assault claims

Labour has won a North Lanarkshire Council seat in a by-election called after a former SNP councillor quit in the wake of sexual misconduct claims.

Police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault made against former council leader Jordan Linden.

He resigned from the council and left the party earlier this year after five men made allegations against him, which he refutes, in the Sunday Mail.

Anne McCrory of Scottish Labour won the Bellshill seat with 1,440 votes.

Local council elections use the single transferrable vote (STV), which means candidates are ranked in the order of preference.

The SNP candidate Joseph Budd received 753 first preference votes while Colin Cameron of the Scottish Conservatives received 236.

The total number of first preference votes was 2,778 - a turnout of 22.7%.

Labour's 51.8% share of the votes was 13 percentage points higher than in the 2022 election, while the SNP's was down by 13.7 points to 27.1%.

Returning officer Des Murray said: "I would like to congratulate Anne McCrory on her election, and I look forward to seeing her at the next council meeting."

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said it was an "incredible result" for the party.

Labour is hopeful of winning a potential by-election later this year in the nearby Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency, whose MP Margaret Ferrier is facing a recall petition after being suspended from the Commons for breaching Covid lockdown rules.

Ms Ferrier was elected as an SNP MP but left the party after it emerged she had taken a train from London to Glasgow despite testing positive for the virus.

Mr Linden stepped down as leader of North Lanarkshire Council in July last year amid accusations of groping and sexual harassment, leading to the collapse of the council's SNP administration.

He then quit the council in March after fresh claims of misconduct, which dated back to 2015.

Several councillors have since left the SNP's group in North Lanarkshire to sit as independents.

At the time, Mr Linden said he refuted the allegations against him and vowed to "robustly" defend himself.

Several councillors have since left the SNP's group in North Lanarkshire to sit as independents. The council is now controlled by Labour.

While campaigning in the area ahead of the by-election last month, First Minister Humza Yousaf said the SNP would investigate how it handled complaints about him.

Mr Yousaf admitted the SNP's issues in North Lanarkshire "could have been handled better".

In May, Police Scotland said officers were investigating a report of a sexual assault incident having taken place in 2017.

Police told the BBC on Friday there were no updates on the investigation.