Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election: Labour wins Westminster seat replacing Margaret Ferrier
Scottish Labour has won the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.
Michael Shanks replaces shamed MP Margaret Ferrier, who was ousted from her seat in August following a successful recall petition for breaching COVID restrictions during lockdown in 2020.
Voters took to the polls between 7am and 10pm on Thursday and out of the 82,104 electorate, a total of 30,531 votes were cast (37.19% turnout).
The turnout is down from 66.48% at the snap 2019 general election, when 53,794 valid votes were cast.
Mr Shanks defeated the SNP’s Katy Loudon by 17,845 votes to 8,399 – a majority of 9,446 and a 20.36% swing from SNP to Scottish Labour.
Speaking to Sky News after his win, Mr Shanks said: “There’s absolutely no doubt that this result shows that there’s no part of the United Kingdom that Labour can’t win.
“It’s been a long time in Scotland – Labour building back to a place where people can trust us again.
“The leadership of Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar has got us to a place where people have put their trust in us.
“I’m incredibly honoured by the trust people have put in me in this by-election.
“But it shows fundamentally that people are fed up with the division of the SNP and want to vote for something else. And it’s clear from this by-election people are willing to do that.”
Michael Shanks during the count
Anas Sarwar and Michael Shanks celebrating Scottish Labour’s win
Ms Ferrier, who won the seat for the SNP in 2019, was forced to sit as an independent after losing the party whip when her COVID breach came to light.
Fourteen candidates battled it out for the hotly contested seat.
The Scottish Conservatives backed Glasgow councillor Thomas Kerr, student Cameron Eadie stood for the Scottish Greens, while data analyst Gloria Adebo ran for the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
All eyes were on the SNP and Scottish Labour – with both parties treating the by-election as an important battleground ahead of the next UK general election.
During the campaign, Labour stated a win in Rutherglen and Hamilton West could help springboard the party to Number 10.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party is now hopeful that Scottish Labour will make gains against the SNP at the next general election, which could potentially pave the way for Labour’s return to power at Westminster.
Sir Keir Starmer joined Michael Shanks on the campaign trail
Following the result, Sir Keir said: “This is a seismic result. People in Rutherglen and Hamilton West have sent a clear message – it is time for change. And it is clear they believe that this changed Labour Party can deliver it.
“I have always said that winning back the trust of people in Scotland is essential.”
Sir Keir said the victory was the culmination of “three and a half years of hard work”.
He added: “I am grateful to everyone who has put their faith in us today – we will work every day to repay it.
“Voters across Scotland and across Britain want a government determined to deliver for working people, with a proper plan to rebuild our country.
“They want to move on from two SNP and Tory governments that offer only more division, more chaos and more infighting.
“The country deserves a government firmly on their side and focused on their priorities – and Labour will deliver that for them.”
SNP leader and First Minister Humza Yousaf joined Katy Loudon on the campaign trail
Responding to the loss, SNP leader and First Minister Humza Yousaf said it was a “disappointing night” for his party.
He added: “I want to thank our exceptional candidate Katy Loudon and our activists for their incredible efforts.
“Let me also congratulate Michael Shanks on being elected. Circumstances of this by-election were always very difficult for us.
“Collapse in the Tory vote, which went straight to Labour, also a significant factor.
“We lost this seat in 2017, and like 2019 we can win this seat back.
“However, we will reflect on what we have to do to regain the trust of the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West.”
Full results:
The Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election result
• Gloria Adebo (Scottish Liberal Democrats) – 895 votes
• Bill Bonnar (Scottish Socialist Party) – 271 votes
• Garry Cooke (Independent) – 6 votes
• Andrew Daly (Independent) – 81 votes
• Cameron Eadie (Scottish Green Party) – 601 votes
• Prince Ankit Love (Independent) – 34 votes
• Niall Fraser (Scottish Family Party) – 319 votes
• Ewan Hoyle (Volt UK) – 46 votes
• Thomas Kerr (Scottish Conservatives) – 1,192 votes
• Katy Loudon (SNP) – 8,399 votes
• Christopher Sermanni (Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) – 178 votes
• Michael Shanks (Scottish Labour Party) – 17,845 votes
• David Stark (Reform UK) – 403 votes
• Colette Walker (Independence for Scotland Party) – 207 votes
When FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, it sent shockwaves throughout the crypto world, erasing billions in market liquidity and shattering confidence in centralized exchanges.
The dramatic collapse became a turning point for the digital asset industry, triggering calls for stronger transparency and reactions from regulators.
Three years after the exchange’s collapse, transparency initiatives across the crypto industry have proliferated. Proof-of-reserves attestations, audits and onchain analytics represented progress. Still, many of those reforms remain works in progress, and some of FTX’s creditors have yet to be made whole.
CEXs forced to adjust post FTX
Centralized exchanges bore the full impact of the post-FTX crisis of confidence. In the weeks following the bankruptcy, users withdrew more than $20 billion from major trading platforms, according to CoinGecko data.
In response, exchanges began publishing proof-of-reserves (PoR) attestations to demonstrate solvency. Binance released its first report on Nov. 10, 2022, followed by a Merkle Tree-based report a few days later that allowed users to verify its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings.
Around that time, OKX, Deribit and Crypto.com all published proofs-of-reserve amid fears of contagion and uncertainty surrounding crypto exchanges.
While these efforts offered some visibility into reserves, most relied on snapshots rather than continuous audits and often drew criticism from the crypto community.
One X user, David Gokhshtein, said at the time that publishing proof-of-reserves wasn’t enough. “When you aren’t showing the company’s liabilities, it means nothing,” he wrote.
Thomas Perfumo, Kraken’s global economist, told Cointelegraph that the “hard lessons of the past were never an indictment of crypto,” adding that the FTX debacle reinforced the “governance and integrity matter.”
Decentralized finance protocols also adapted following the collapse, pushing calls not only for transparency but also for self-custody as an essential safeguard for crypto users.
“We’ve seen a notable shift,” Eddie Zhang, president of dYdX Labs, told Cointelegraph. According to Zhang, DeFi now operates under stronger risk frameworks while “governance is becoming more sophisticated,” with systems that “withstand market shocks.”
Related: FTX’s 2-year repayment delay is a ‘win,’ claims trader who predicted FTX’s collapse
Creditors still waiting for closure
Despite the industry’s transparency campaigns and recent regulations, such as the GENIUS Act in the United States and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, some FTX creditors have yet to recover their losses.
According to a Nov. 9 update by Sunil Kavuri, a FTX creditor representative, the exchange has distributed $7.1 billion to creditors across three rounds so far.
In January, FTX announced the distribution of more than $1.2 billion in repayments to creditors who fulfilled certain requirements before Jan. 20. However, according to Sunil, only $454 million was effectively paid in the first round, going to small claimants with balances under $50,000.
A larger $5 billion payout followed on May 30, while the latest round took place on Sept. 30 and distributed another $1.6 billion to creditors. The next distribution is expected in January 2026, though it has not been confirmed by the FTX estate.
FTX’s total recovered assets were estimated at about $16.5 billion in October 2024.
According to Kavuri, because repayments are being made in US dollars rather than in-kind crypto assets, creditors are missing out on the market’s rebound since 2022.
Bitcoin, valued at $16,797 the day after FTX filed for bankruptcy, was trading around $103,000 on Tuesday.
Even with cash repayments exceeding the original claim amounts, real recovery rates could range from 9% to 46% when adjusted for current crypto prices, Kavuri said.
Related: FTX drops ‘restricted countries’ motion but warns it may refile
SBF looks for a lifeline
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy but has appealed his conviction, arguing that he was denied the presumption of innocence and barred from presenting evidence that FTX was, in fact, solvent in November 2022. His legal team appeared before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Nov. 4.
Prediction market Polymarket currently assigns only a 4% probability that Bankman-Fried will receive a presidential pardon in 2025. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, who cooperated with prosecutors, began serving her sentence in late 2024 and is projected to be released in mid-2026.
Magazine: Good luck suing crypto exchanges, market makers over the flash crash
John Deaton, a lawyer who advocates for XRP holders and ran against Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in the 2024 US election, is making another bid for Congress.
At a Monday event in Worcester, Massachusetts, Deaton announced that he would run for US Senate again in 2026, this time attempting to unseat Democratic Senator Ed Markey. The lawyer ran as the Republican candidate in 2024, losing to Warren, a Democrat, by about 700,000 votes.
“I’m winning this time,” Deaton said in a campaign video aired at the Worcester event.
Deaton, who said he will run as a Republican to unseat Markey, will likely face competition on both sides of the aisle in 2026. His campaign announcement did not specifically focus on digital asset policy, but he and Warren had previously clashed over their respective views on crypto.
Related: XRP Army made a difference in Ripple’s SEC lawsuit: Crypto lawyer
Deaton gained widespread recognition in the crypto industry by advocating on behalf of XRP (XRP) holders in Ripple Labs’ legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Seth Moulton, who represents Massachusetts’s 6th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives, is a Democratic contender in the 2026 race. Markey, who will be 80 next year, voted against the passage of the GENIUS stablecoin bill and has called out crypto mining for its “extravagant electricity use.”
Looking at a repeat of 2024?
“We’re never going to not be excited about someone advocating for [crypto] policy,” Mason Lynaugh, community director of Stand With Crypto, told Cointelegraph. “He’s going to have his own voters he’s going to cultivate that are very excited to see someone like him saying these types of things publicly.”
It’s unclear what Deaton’s chances would be in a US state that typically swings to the Democrats.
During his previous Senate campaign, cryptocurrency executives from Ripple, Gemini and Kraken supported Deaton’s run, contributing more than $360,000 in the first quarter of 2024.
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