SNP holds seat in South Lanarkshire Council by-election

Image source, Google

Image caption, The South Lanarkshire Council vote was triggered after the death of a sitting councillor

The SNP held a seat in a South Lanarkshire Council by-election with a slightly increased share of the vote.

Stephanie Callaghan took the Hamilton North and East seat with 42.9% of first-preference votes, ahead of Labour's Lyndsay Clelland on 33.6%.

The share of the vote going to the Scottish Conservatives jumped by 8.4%, while Labour's was down 9.4%.

The by-election was triggered after local SNP councillor Lynn Adams died in September 2015.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon posted congratulations to the new councillor on Twitter, noting that the result was the 26th win for the SNP out of 29 by-elections contested since May.

Conservative leader Ruth Davidson also took to Twitter to congratulate her party's candidate, James Mackay, for increasing the Tory share of the vote by 8.4%.

Turnout was just over 20%.