Yahoo Finance Anum Qaisar-Javed holds Airdrie seat for SNP in byelection
Anum Qaisar-Javed has become Scotland’s second female Muslim MP after she held the Westminster seat of Airdrie and Shotts for the Scottish National party in Thursday’s byelection, despite a significant swing to Scottish Labour.
The victory for the 28-year-old modern studies teacher brings the number of SNP MPs in the Commons back to 45. The byelection was held after the sitting MP, Neil Gray, resigned in order to stand in last week’s Scottish parliamentary election in the overlapping Holyrood constituency.
Before the vote, sources cross-party had expressed concerns about turnout given that the byelection was scheduled for only a week after Holyrood’s elections, which the SNP won by a landslide. Thursday’s turnout was 34.3% – lower than the average of 46.5% for a byelection in the last parliament.
The SNP polled 10,129 votes and Labour 8,372, giving Qaisar-Javed a reduced majority of 1,757. The SNP’s share of the vote was 46.4%, up 1.4 points from the 2019 election, with Scottish Labour’s share increasing by 6.5 points to 38.4%.
Watch: 'If she can do it, so can I' - SNP's newest MP Anum Qaisar-Javed says she wants to be role model for other minorities
The party had hoped to increase its support in the constituency – once a Labour stronghold – under its new leader, Anas Sarwar, after coming within 195 votes of regaining the seat in 2017.
Qaisar-Javed told BBC Scotland she hoped to be a role model for others from diverse backgrounds, and she pledged to fight for Scottish independence.
She said she taught her modern studies students about why there were fewer people from minority communities in politics. “We talk about reasons such as a lack of role models, and it has taken until 2021 but now we have two women of colour in the Scottish parliament”.
On Thursday, new MSPs were being sworn in at Holyrood following the election last week of what has been described as Scotland’s most diverse parliament yet, with six MSPs of colour, increased from two in 2016, and a record 58 women.
Qaisar-Javed said: “But I don’t just want women of colour to look at me, or people of colour, I want anyone from any minority group to be able to look at me and say if she can do it, so can I.”
