Edinburgh - Labour last night held Paisley South in the by-election brought about by the suicide of Mr Gordon McMaster. However, for newcomer Mr Douglas Alexander (30) the party's general election majority of 12,750 was cut to 2,731.
In a poll which ended a campaign that was lacklustre for all parties and with a turnout was less than 43 per cent, the result was still enough for Labour to win a clear victory over the Scottish National Party, which had posed the greatest challenge. Mr Alexander said after the result: "The message of tonight is that a Labour government, delivering on its promises to the people of Scotland, leaves the nationalists with nothing to say and nowhere to go."