Edinburgh general election: Rutherglen result means most city seats within Labour's grasp, says Ian Murray

The 20 per cent swing to Labour in Rutherglen by-election would be enough to win almost all Edinburgh’s Westminster seats

Almost all Edinburgh's UK parliament seats are now within Labour's grasp following the party's dramatic victory in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, Edinburgh South MP Ian Murray has said.

And he highlighted two of the Capital's constituencies where Labour could win with less than half the swing seen in Rutherglen.

Labour's Michael Shanks won the by-election with more than double the number of votes the SNP got – a much bigger win than the party had been expecting. It had needed a five per cent swing to take the seat, but Mr Shanks achieved a swing of 20.4 per cent.

Edinburgh South Labour MP Ian Murray says most of Edinburgh's Westminster seats are now within Labour's grasp. Picture: Jane Barlow, PA.

He will join Mr Murray – up until now Labour's only Scottish MP – on the Westminster benches. And the result has raised Labour hopes of making major gains in Scotland at the next general election, which must be held before January 2025.

Mr Murray said: "The 20.4 per cent swing the pollsters suggest would bring in over 40 seats – that would be every seat in Edinburgh bar West. It takes a swing of less than half of that to win Edinburgh East and Edinburgh North & Leith." Both East and North & Leith were Labour strongholds until 2015, when they were won by the SNP, who have held them ever since. Edinburgh East had been solidly Labour dating back to 1935 and Leith since 1945.

Mr Murray continued: "We have two great candidates in those seats, Chris Murray and Tracy Gilbert, who will spend the months in the run up to the general election taking the positive Labour message of change to every door as we did in Rutherglen."

The Rutherglen triumph also boosts the chances of former Cabinet minister Douglas Alexander winning East Lothian, one of Labour’s top Scottish targets, and Kirsty McNeill taking Midlothian.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar hailed the by-election victory as a “seismic result” which he said showed that Scotland, like the entire UK, was “crying out for change”. Scots were growing weary of “SNP and Tory failure” and turning to Scottish Labour to deliver change.

“It is a result not two months in the making, but two years in the making. The people of Scotland can see that Scottish Labour has changed and is ready to deliver. Before this, Scottish Labour had not won a parliamentary by-election in 12 years – this is a turning point in Scottish politics, and it shows that the SNP and the Tories can be beaten. It’s clear that Scotland can lead the way in kicking out the Tories and delivering a Labour Government.”