The 2008 Glenrothes by-election was a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

held in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

on 6 November 2008 to elect a new

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

constituency of

Glenrothes Glenrothes (; , ; sco, Glenrothes; gd, Gleann Rathais) is a town situated in the heart of Fife, in east-central Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south of Dundee. The town had a population of 39,277 in the 2011 census, making i ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

. The seat fell vacant when the previous MP, John MacDougall (

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

), died of pleural mesothelioma on 13 August 2008, aged 60. Pleural Mesothelioma is a rare form of lung cancer caused by prolonged exposure to

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

. The by-election was won by

Lindsay Roy Lindsay Allan Roy, CBE, FRSA (born 19 January 1949) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Glenrothes from 2008 until 2015. He is the former Rector of Inverkeithing High School and Kirkcaldy High School. He ...

of the Labour Party.

Result

Background

Fife is traditionally a stronghold for the Labour Party. MacDougall had held Glenrothes and its forerunner, Central Fife, since 2001, when he succeeded

Henry McLeish Henry Baird McLeish (born 15 June 1948) is a Scottish politician, author and academic who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2000 to 2001. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Fife from ...

Willie Hamilton William Winter Hamilton (26 June 1917 – 23 January 2000) was a British politician who served as a Labour Member of Parliament for constituencies in Fife, Scotland for 37 years, between 1950 and 1987. He was known for his strong republican ...

had previously represented the area, which has elected Labour MPs since Hamilton won West Fife from the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

in 1950. The poll followed a run of poor by-election results for the Labour Party, which included a loss to the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

(SNP) in Glasgow East, formerly the party's twenty-fifth safest seat in Britain. Glenrothes has a considerably smaller Labour majority than Glasgow East had.Gerri Peev,
New Scots vote gives Brown three months to save political skin
, ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'', 14 August 2008 According to the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'', Labour privately admitted that they expected to lose Glenrothes to the SNP.George Parker and Jim Pickard,
Brown faces new by-election battle
, ''

'', 13 August 2008 ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' described the constituency's main town,

, as a "core area" for the SNP.Severin Carrell,
From working class loyalty to new town aspiration
, ''

'', 14 August 2008 The SNP were in second place in the seat in the 2005 general electionNigel Morris,
Brown loses a friend – and faces another daunting Scottish by-election
, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 14 August 2008 and won the nearest equivalent seat in the

2007 Scottish Parliament election The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fe ...

. The SNP also ran

Council, which covers the constituency, in coalition with the

Scottish Liberal Democrats The Scottish Liberal Democrats ( gd, Pàrtaidh Libearal Deamocratach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Leeberal Democrats) is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, a part of the United Kingdom Liberal Democrats. The party currently holds 4 o ...

. The Scottish Liberal Democrats won the last by-election to be held in Fife from Labour on a swing of 16%.

Polling date

By tradition, the polling date was decided by Labour, as MacDougall's party, and set for Thursday, 6 November 2008. Had the writ been moved immediately the by-election could have been held as early as mid-September, although this coincided with the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...

annual conference and the following weeks were filled with various party conferences. A Labour loss during this period could have provided a particular boost for their opponents, or for dissident elements within the party.Iain Watson,
Don't expect an early by-election
,

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

, 13 August 2008 The SNP may have favoured a quick by-election, noting that Labour called the Glasgow East by-election rapidly, when commentators believed it was to Labour's advantage.

Candidates

The Labour party candidate was Kirkcaldy High School rector Lindsay Roy. The SNP selected the leader of Fife Council, Peter Grant. The

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

selected Maurice Golden while the Liberal Democrats chose Harry Wills.Steve Bargeton,
MP's death leaves battle for Brown
", '' The Courier'' The

Scottish Socialist Party The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP; gd, Pàrtaidh Sòisealach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Socialist Pairtie) is a left-wing political party campaigning for the establishment of an independent socialist Scotland. The party was founded in 1998. It c ...

stood Morag Balfour, their national co-chair, who lived in Glenrothes and had been a candidate in the constituency before.Simon Johnson,
John MacDougall was suing Government over disease that killed him
, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', 24 August 2008 Solidarity stood Louise McLeary, a community activist who lived in the part of

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...

which lies inside the constituency. The UKIP candidate was Dr. Kris Seunarine a specialist in the science of biophotonics at Dundee university, and chairman of the Fife branch of UKIP. Two of the minor party candidates had disabilities: Balfour was a

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

user and McLeary was

visually impaired Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...

2005 Election Result

Marked register

Some months after the election, the marked register (on which the electors who had cast their vote were marked) was discovered to be missing. In law the register ought to have been preserved for a year and a day; the Returning Officer from Fife Council had transmitted the marked register to the Sheriff Court as required by law and obtained a receipt. The SNP Constituency Organiser, Cllr John Beare, had asked for a copy of the marked register on 19 November 2008; after ten weeks, the

Scottish Court Service , type = , seal = , logo = 250px , logo_caption = , formed = , jurisdiction = Scotland , headquarters = Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh EH11 3XD , employees = 1,374 , budget = £129.3 million (2015-2016) , chief1_name = Lord ...

admitted the marked register was lost. An inquiry by the Scottish Court Service identified significant failings in its handling of election documents, which had been placed in a room at the court office in

to which outside contractors had access. In October 2009, the Scotland Office agreed a protocol to create a substitute marked register for the election.Votes and Proceedings
of the House of Commons, 19 October 2009.

References

External links

* http://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/local-headlines/mystery_of_the_glenrothes_by_election_missing_papers_1_153322 * https://web.archive.org/web/20120504153408/http://scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/report/Report_Investigation_into_Missing_Electoral_Register2009.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Glenrothes By-Election, 2008 2008 elections in the United Kingdom 2008 in Scotland 2008 Glenrothes By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Scottish constituencies Politics of Fife 21st century in Fife November 2008 events in the United Kingdom