LABOUR faced calls to apologise today after a council by-election bungle left the winner disqualified from office within hours of the poll.

Mary McNab was elected in the city’s North East ward, one of three Labour wins on November 22 in a trio of by-elections sparked after incumbents Patricia Ferguson and Maureen Burke were elected to the British Parliament in July’s general election, and Keiran O’Neill took up a senior political post within the GMB. 

But Ms McNab failed to resign from her employment at the council within 24 hours of her win, as required under the Scottish Local Government Act 1973, rendering her unable to take her seat and potentially forcing another by-election.

Just days before the people of city’s Partick East and Kelvindale ward go to the polls, SNP Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken took to X (formerly Twitter) to hit out at Glasgow Labour.

She posted: “I feel for Mary McNab who’s been let down by lazy and incompetent @GlasgowLabour leadership, who seem to think the rules don’t apply to them.

“Not half as let down as folk in the North East ward or the wider city though. An apology at the least is due for this @GlasgowLabour mess.”

A spokesperson for the council said that last week it “became clear that the victor in the North East by election had not resigned from her employment in Glasgow City Council.”

They added: “This automatically disqualified her with the effect that she is no longer a councillor and a by-election will need to be held.

“This is however untested legal ground and to ensure the law is being correctly interpreted, we will tomorrow begin the process of seeking a declarator from the sheriff principal to that effect.”