2006 Dunfermline and West Fife by-election
9 February 2006
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dunfermline and West Fife parliamentary seat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Dunfermline and West Fife was held on 9 February 2006, following the death of the incumbent Labour Party MP Rachel Squire. It was won by Willie Rennie of the Liberal Democrats, who gained the seat from Labour on a large swing of 16.2%.
It was the first time Labour had lost a seat at a Westminster by-election in Scotland since 1988 Glasgow Govan by-election, and the first time Labour had ever lost to the Liberal Democrats, or their predecessors the Liberal Party, in a Scottish Westminster by-election. The by-election took place in the middle of a leadership election for the Liberal Democrats, and the party was perceived in the media to be declining in the polls as a result of negative publicity surrounding the resignation of former leader Charles Kennedy, as well as revelations about the private lives of Mark Oaten and Simon Hughes.
The constituency of Dunfermline and West Fife was first created for the United Kingdom Parliament at the 2005 general election and saw a comfortable Labour win at that election.
Labour gained the seat back at the 2010 general election, with the Liberal Democrats in second place.