It is early days so far in the Rutherglen by-election but punters have already made their minds up – Labour is the very tight odds on favorite to take the seat from the SNP.

Certainly, there has been a very big move to LAB from the SNP in recent Scottish polls the latest of which has the party just 2% behind

In the other possible by-election, Mid-Bedfordshire, the Lib Dems are odds on favourite to gain the seat. There is however no vacancy in the seat yet although Nadine Dorries declared on June 9 that she was resigning with immediate effect.

The speculation is that the former culture secretary will announce that she is going on the eve of Sunak’s ‘conference speech

Betting markets do sometimes get by-elections wrong as we saw at Uxbridge last month.

Mike Smithson