Dozen blows for Labour after it loses its grasp on city council
LOCAL ELECTIONS 2017
LABOUR has lost control of the City Council in Glasgow for the first time since 1980 after it lost more than a dozen councillors.
It is the first time since 1969 that Labour is not the biggest party in the City Chambers.
However the party is attempting to turn what should be seen as a humiliating defeat, losing Scotland’s biggest city which for decades has been one of its safest strongholds in the UK, into a moral victory because it helped prevent the SNP forming a majority.
Labour faces at the count at the Emirates Arena went from being downcast early on when the first ward to be declared, Shettleston in the East End, saw it lose its first councillor of the day, Anne Simpson, to upbeat when it became clear the SNP takeover was not as big as predicted.
Also the Labour collapse was not as big as many had feared with the party coming first in several seats and still pushing the SNP hard across much of the city.
That heralded the end of Labour control as it needed every one of its 43 candidates to be elected to stay in power.
Privately however, Labour politicians knew that was not a reality and their goal in the final weeks of the campaign was to prevent an SNP majority and to stop an SNP/Green independence supporting majority.
Outgoing Labour City Council leader, Frank McAveety, was bullish after the final results came in which put his party second, but just eight seats behind the SNP.
He said: “The SNP told us Glasgow was a yes city. Well today Glasgow said ‘ no thanks to another referendum’.
“We were told six seeks ago the SNP was a shoo-in for a majority at the council.
“Well we pegged them back because we spoke up for the people of Glasgow.”
He said that the Labour result seen in the context of recent results was not as bad as many had predicted.
He added: “Given where we have been in the last few years we have managed to retain a significant number of Labour councillors.”
He accepted there would now be a change at the council but he said: “What we want now is stability not uncertainty.”
Other Labour councillors were concerned about the prospect of a minority SNP led council after years of Labour majority.
Maureen Burke, Labour councillor for the North East ward, said: “It is a concern how the lack of majority leadership will impact on Glasgow.
“We are in a situation now where we don’t know what the way forward will be until we have those discussions.
“The decline in the SNP vote, coming from me as a Labour councillor, well I think people are seeing things differently now.
“The Referendum turned politics around and it did engage people but this election shows people are still disengaged again and it’s about trying to get that out there again.”
Labour Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale was heartened by the SNP failing to win a majority.
She said: “I know they (the SNP) are screaming and shouting just now and delighting in the result, but the reality is the SNP took every single seat in that city in 2015, every single seat in 2016, they should have walked it.”
Some senior Labour councillors were expected to lose their seats but the anticipated cull did not materialise.
Alistair Watson was one of two senior party figures in the city re-elected in Cardonald Ward along with Matt Kerr.
Mr Watson said: “It was an extremely exhausting and challenging campaign.
“The results coming in for