U.K. opposition party hails big win in Scottish by-election

Labour wins big in Scotland local election, boosting party's chances of ousting PM Sunak in U.K. general election. Labour's tally of seats in Scotland rises from one to two. Labour leader Starmer hails victory as "seismic". Labour has enjoyed double-digit poll leads, but gap narrowing.

Britain's main opposition Labour party on Friday welcomed a big local election win in Scotland as a sign its electoral fortunes were changing head of a UK general election.

Labour needs to win back some of the 40 seats it lost in Scotland in 2015 if it is to have a chance of ousting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative government at a UK election likely to be held next year.

Polling expert John Curtice said the 20 percent swing to Labour — if replicated at a general election — could allow the party to recapture dozens of seats north of the border.

That could have "implications for the overall outcome in the general election because, if that were to happen, they would find it easier to get an overall majority", Curtice added.

The result takes the Labour party's tally of seats in Scotland from one to two, after it was all but wiped out by the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) at the 2015 election.

Labour leader Keir Starmer hailed the victory by nearly 59 percent of the vote as "seismic", just days before the party gathers in the northwestern English city of Liverpool for its annual conference.

"This is a first step on a very, very important journey for all of us in Scotland, for all of us across the whole of the United Kingdom," he said.