Betting opens on Rutherglen & Hamilton even though there’s no vacancy
It is looking very likely that there will be a by-election in the Scottish seat of Rutherglen and Hamilton constituency following investigations into a series of lockdown violations by the sitting MP.
She is still there but her political future does not look good because the committee which has looked at the matter is calling for a four weeks suspension which would trigger a by-election.
The seat has a checkered history of flipping between Labour and the SNP and it is hard in the current context to see an SNP hold.
Once the vacancy has been declared then the normal practice is for the party that won it at the general election to be the one that triggers it. Whether that would be the case here I don’t know and you could see a situation whereby LAB would seek to initiate the by-election