Alyn Smith MP
not see Stirling as a “high priority seat” even though Labour’s Anne McGuire held the constituency from May, 1997, until she stepped down from Parliament on March 30, 2015.
“For me it went as well as it could have done for a young activist who was backed by a team of young activists with other commitments,” she added.
Some conspiracy theorists claimed after the result the Labour campaign was deliberately half-hearted to give the SNP the best chance of picking up disaffected Labour supporters and defeating Mr Kerr.
Mr Smith acknowledged that “many people in Stirling loaned us a vote”.
However, Stirling East Labour Councillor Chris Kane dismissed the notion, stating: “To suggest Labour did anything other than try to win is disrespectful to all the Labour activists who trailed through the wind and rain for weeks talking to voters across Stirling.”
Green candidate Brian Quinn, who polled 942 votes, said the message they received on the doorsteps was that people intended to vote tactically that election but might consider backing them in future polls. Liberal-Democrat Fayzan Rehman attracted 2867, increasing the party’s share of the vote in Stirling constituency from 3.4 per cent in 2017 to 5.4 per cent in the latest poll.