SCOTTISH Labour have defeated the SNP in a council by election with Humza Yousaf's party pushed into third place.

Kirsty Williams won the by election in East Kilbride West in South Lanarkshire with 40% of first preference votes (up by 14 percentage points since the council elections last year) while the Tory candidate Bill Dorrian came second on 26%, a rise of six percentage points.

The SNP's Robert Gillies won 23%, down from 31 per cent in 2022. Just 26% of those registered turned out to vote. 

Hailing the result, which was announced late last night as Mr Yousaf marked his first 100 days as First Minister, Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie wrote on Twitter: "A fitting present for Humza Yousaf for his first 100 days as First Minister - a Labour gain from SNP - and the SNP in third place."

Since just after the local government elections last year, Labour and the Lib Dems have run South Lanarkshire Council as a coalition, alongside one independent councillor, with support from the Conservatives.

The East Kilbride West contest was called after SNP councillor Ali Salamati resigned in May this year. 

It is the second council by election win for Labour in the Scottish central belt in recent weeks with the party gaining the Bellshill ward in neighbouring North Lanarkshire last month.

Labour candidate Anne McCrory gained Bellshill on first preferences with almost double the vote taken by the SNP.

Scottish labour leader Anas Sarwar hailed that outcome as an "incredible result".

The double losses in Lanarkshire are early electoral setbacks for Mr Yousaf, who faces the prospect of a Westminster by election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

A recall petition is currently underway in the constituency to remove former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier who broke lockdown rules at the height of the pandemic. She currently sits as an independent MP.

Councillor Salamati's branch convener Jackie Harris said at the time of his resignation in May: “Work is taking Ali overseas and rather than take the approach of other parties and continue to take a councillor’s allowance while not doing his job, he’s done the right thing by electors and offered the chance for them to elect another SNP councillor.”