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(Bloomberg) — The Scottish National Party was dealt a blow following an embezzlement scandal involving its former chief executive as the Conservatives scored a decisive victory in a by-election.
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The Tories won the Aberdeen South district from the SNP on Thursday, while the Scottish nationalists retained the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry constituency. Both UK Parliament seats were vacated by lawmakers who recently were elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
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The votes were the first since details emerged of the spending habits of Peter Murrell, the SNP’s former chief and estranged husband of ex leader Nicola Sturgeon. Murrell was convicted of embezzlement, using the more than £400,000 ($528,000) for a lavish spending spree on consumer goods including a motorhome, coffee machines and watches. He is due to be sentenced next week.
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The election in Aberdeen, the UK’s oil hub, was also dominated by the UK’s energy policy. The SNP and Conservatives campaigned on promises to champion the industry amid the push into renewables.
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It also came six weeks after the SNP and Greens, who both support Scottish independence, won a majority in the Scottish Parliament. That ballot was widely seen as a rebuke to the Labour leadership in London as the anti-European Union, anti-immigration Reform Party gained ground.
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Nationally, the contest was overshadowed by the Makerfield by-election in northwest England. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham won that vote to return to Westminster, with the expectation he will challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the Labour Party leadership.
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“Makerfield was about one man’s job,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said on social media after her party beat the SNP by just over 6,000 votes. “Aberdeen South was about thousands of jobs in oil and gas across our country and the future of an entire city.”
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The victory may also help secure Badenoch’s job as she tries to rebuild her party after being trounced by Labour in 2024 and then overtaken by Reform.
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“Although this is a by-election in the far northeast of Scotland, it’s going to have resonance in politics across the rest of the UK,” said John Curtice, a politics professor at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and the UK’s most prominent election analyst. “Kemi Badenoch is going to be even safer in her leadership of the party after her result, in stark contrast to Keir Starmer.”
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