Editing Gordon Brown (section)

===By-elections and 2009 local and EU elections===
[[File:Biden Brown, Policy Network, April 6 2009.jpg|thumb|250px|Brown greeting then-U.S. vice president [[Joe Biden]] in [[Chile]], April 2009]]
In the local elections on 1 May 2008, Labour suffered its worst results in 40 years, finishing in third place with a projected 24% share of the national vote.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2 May 2008 |title=Labour suffers big council losses |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7372860.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921211337/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7372860.stm |archive-date=21 September 2011}}</ref> Subsequently, the party saw the loss of by-elections in [[2008 Crewe and Nantwich by-election|Crewe and Nantwich]] and [[2008 Henley by-election|Henley]] as well as slumps in the polls. A [[2008 Glasgow East by-election|by-election in Glasgow East]] triggered by the resignation of [[David Marshall (British politician)|David Marshall]] saw Labour struggle to appoint a candidate, eventually settling for [[Margaret Curran]], a sitting MSP in the [[Scottish Parliament]]. The SNP, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats all derided Labour for their disorganised nature, with [[Alex Salmond]] commenting "This is their 'lost weekend'—they don't have a leader in Scotland, they don't have a candidate in Glasgow East, and they have a prime minister who refuses to come to the constituency".<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 July 2008 |title=Labour MSP joins by-election race |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7491574.stm |url-status=live |access-date=3 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122113838/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7491574.stm |archive-date=22 November 2008}}</ref> Labour lost the constituency to the [[Scottish National Party]]'s [[John Mason (Scottish politician)|John Mason]] who took 11,277 votes, with Labour just 365 behind. The seat experienced a swing of 22.54%.<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 July 2008 |title=SNP stuns Labour in Glasgow East |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7522153.stm |url-status=live |access-date=19 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921055948/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7522153.stm |archive-date=21 September 2008}}</ref>

In the [[2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom|European elections]], Labour polled 16% of the vote, finishing in third place behind the Conservatives and [[UK Independence Party]] (UKIP).<ref name=labour/> Voter apathy was reflected in the historically low turnout of around thirty-three per cent. In Scotland, voter turnout was only twenty-eight per cent. In the [[2009 United Kingdom local elections|local elections]], Labour polled 23% of the vote, finishing in third place behind [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]] and [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]], with Labour losing control of the four councils it had held prior to the election.<ref>{{Cite news |date=7 June 2009 |title=Election 2009 &#124; Councils A-Z |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/elections/local_council/09/html/region_999999.stm |url-status=live |access-date=21 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090609072137/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/elections/local_council/09/html/region_999999.stm |archive-date=9 June 2009}}</ref> In a vote widely considered to be a reaction to the expenses scandal, the share of the votes was down for all the major parties; Labour was down one per cent, the Conservative share was down five per cent. The beneficiary of the public backlash was generally seen to be the minor parties, including the [[Green Party of England and Wales|Green Party]] and UKIP. These results were Labour's worst since World War II. Brown was quoted in the press as having said that the results were "a painful defeat for Labour", and that "too many good people doing so much good for their communities and their constituencies have lost through no fault of their own."<ref name=timesonline1/><ref>{{Cite news |date=8 June 2009 |title=Salmond hails historic Euro win |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8088358.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090608013122/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8088358.stm |archive-date=8 June 2009}}</ref>