SNP hold Dundee City Council seat following by-election

The SNP has held on to a Dundee City Council seat in a by-election just five weeks out from the Scottish Parliament vote.

Lynne Short won the Maryfield ward by-election with 49.5 per cent of the vote, defeating seven other candidates.

The seat had been vacated after councillor Craig Melville resigned while under investigation for allegedly sending anti-Islamic texts to a Muslim colleague.

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The victory means the SNP have claimed 28 of the 31 local by-election seats contested since May 7 last year.  

Holyrood candidate for Dundee City East Shona Robison said: “It’s a great launch pad for the Holyrood election in Dundee – putting real momentum behind the campaign."

Melville, who was suspended by the SNP and from his role as an aide to deputy leader of the party Stewart Hosie, quit in February, saying the pressures of the allegations were having an “adverse effect on the health of my family and I”.