2000 Glasgow Anniesland by-elections

By-elections for both the United Kingdom parliamentary and Scottish Parliament constituencies of Glasgow Anniesland were held on 23 November 2000 following the death of incumbent Scottish Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) and First Minister of Scotland, Donald Dewar. Both seats were retained by Labour.

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2000 Glasgow Anniesland by-election

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First party Second party Third party   Lab SNP Con Candidate John Robertson Grant Thoms Dorothy Luckhurst Party Labour SNP Conservative Popular vote 10,359 4,202 2,188 Percentage 51.7% 21.0% 10.9% Swing 10.1% 3.9% 0.6%   Fourth party Fifth party   Lib Sco Candidate Chris McGinty Charlie McCarthy Party Liberal Democrats Scottish Socialist Popular vote 1,630 1,441 Percentage 8.1% 7.2% Swing 0.9% 6.5%

MP before election Donald Dewar Labour Elected MP John Robertson Labour

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Dewar, a leading figure in Scottish Labour politics, had in 1999 been elected to the Scottish Parliament where he had become First Minister of the Scottish Parliament, but he retained his seat in the Parliament of the United Kingdom intending to stand down at the next general election. However, Dewar died on 11 October 2000 from a massive brain haemorrhage, possibly brought on by a fall he suffered outside his official residence the previous day. This created a by-election for his seat of Glasgow Anniesland in the UK Parliament and Glasgow Anniesland in the Scottish Parliament.

Both elections were held on the same day, and polling day was set for 23 November. John Robertson had already been chosen to fight the seat for Labour at the general election and therefore stood at the by-election. The Labour vote declined, but with the main beneficiary being the small Scottish Socialist Party rather than the challenging Scottish National Party, the seat was comfortably held.