内容摘要：National opinion polling has them heavily trailing the SNP in Holyrood voting intentions.

National opinion polling has them heavily trailing the SNP in Holyrood voting intentions.

Both the SNP and Labour lost vote share in this by-election but the punishment for the SNP, in power at Holyrood for the last 18 years, was far greater.They repeatedly framed this contest as a two horse race between them and Reform UK. Their billboards in the constituency still make that claim. It was obviously wrong.

In reality, this was a three horse race that Labour won by a nose to take the seat from the SNP - which now has big questions to ask itself about its strategy for 2026.If Reform can do half as well in the contest next May, they can expect to have their first MSPs elected and gain a significant foothold at Holyrood.That would break the traditional consensus that Scotland needs more immigration to fill job vacancies and offset the effects of an ageing population.

The established parties acknowledge that concerns about immigration featured in this by-election in a way they have not before.The biggest losers in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse are the Conservatives who finished a distant fourth and appear to be struggling to counter the rise of Reform.

Defeat here is a significant setback for the Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay and offers no encouragement to Kemi Badenoch and the UK party.

This is also not a victory that Sir Keir Starmer can really claim as his own.But others reject this, arguing that the guest house was privately owned, and so any compensation rightfully belongs to the family.

Some argue that even if the family proves lineage to Mayankutty Keyi, without ownership documents, they're unlikely to gain anything.For Muhammed Shihad, a Kannur resident who has co-authored a book on the history of the Keyi and Arakkal families, though, the dispute is not just about the money - but about honouring the family's roots.

"If they don't get the compensation, it would be worth openly recognising the family's and the region's connection to this noble act."Mark Carney has invited his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to the upcoming G7 summit in Alberta, marking a shift in Canada-India relations that had soured in recent years.