Big win for Christie sends city by-pass message

3.19.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 26th Apr 2009

John Farquhar Munro, Danny Alexander, Charles Kennedy and Alan MacRae with and members of the Highland Lib Dem team campaigning for Alasdair Christie

Inverness Liberal Democrats have heralded a decisive win for Alasdair Christie in Thursday's Inverness West by-election. The Lib Dems won the contest on the first round of voting, obtaining almost 60% of first preference votes cast. The result overturns an SNP lead of 125 votes when the ward last voted in May 2007, and represents a swing of 21% from the SNP to the Liberal Democrats.

Commenting on his success, Alasdair Christie said:

"I am deeply honoured to have been chosen so decisively by the people of West Inverness.

"I would like to pay tribute to the work of Jimmy Macdonald, whose sad passing away was the reason for this by-election. It will be a daunting challenge to fill his shoes.

"The recession means it has become more important than ever that help is available to the people who are being hardest hit. Through my work at the Citizens Advice Bureau, I hope I can add both to the service people in the ward get from their team of councillors, and to the Highland council as a whole.

"The scale of this result will send a very clear message to the SNP.

"Since breaking their promise to fund the by-pass that Inverness needs, they have said a number of different things to deflect attention from the decision in Edinburgh. The problem is not with what they have been saying, but what they have not been doing.

"The Transport Minister should be in no doubt today that funding for the by-pass must be found."

The full result of the Inverness West by-election was:

Alasdair Christie (Lib Dem) 1503 (60%)

SNP 556 (22%)

Lab 210 (8%)

Christian Party 115 (5%)

Con 111 (4%)

Solidarity 27 (1%)

Turnout 2522 (38.35%)

21% swing from SNP to Highland Lib Dems