New MSP proud to serve community

Mr Russell was congratulated as the result was declared at 1.30am on Friday by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and deputy Dame Jackie Baillie, as they celebrated a landmark victory in an intense contest previously declared a two-horse race between the SNP and Reform by both of those parties.

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The new MSP told the Hamilton Advertiser the result was “tremendous” and demonstrated the success of his “back to basics” approach in which he eschewed broadcast interviews and set-piece events in favour of a highly-localised ground strategy of knocking on doors to speak to voters multiple times during the seven-week campaign.

He noted that the three-hour count at South Lanarkshire Council's headquarters in Hamilton “had been close” as ballot papers stacked up, but said: “I was fairly confident because my campaign had been chapping doors and listening to people, and it has paid off.

“You need to listen to people [about] the real issues that they're concerned about. That's part of the problem, that they haven't been listening to anybody over the last 18 years.