Dunfermline by-election, 2013

The Dunfermline by-election, 2013 is a by-election that was held for the Scottish Parliament constituency of Dunfermline on 24 October 2013. It followed the resignation of its MSP, Bill Walker after he was convicted of 23 charges of assault.

It was won by Cara Hilton of the Labour Party, gaining the seat from the SNP.

Bill Walker was elected as a SNP candidate in the 2011 election. In March 2012 a Scottish newspaper, the Sunday Herald, claimed that his first three marriages had ended with allegations of violent behaviour towards his wives. The SNP suspended Walker in March, and then expelled him in April, for allegedly not declaring similar claims cited in uncontested divorce proceedings during their MSP vetting process.

On 22 August 2013, Walker was convicted of 23 offences of assault and one of breach of the peace in relation to three ex-wives and a stepdaughter, and sentencing was set for 20 September. The maximum sentence he could receive was 12 months, but only a longer sentence would see him automatically expelled from Parliament. This led to considerable political and media discussion about the situation; a majority of MSPs backed a motion calling on him to resign. As a result, Walker resigned on 7 September 2013. He was subsequently jailed for 12 months.

On 9 September, 22-year-old local resident James Reekie announced that he would stand as the Scottish Conservative candidate. He centred his campaign around job creation and regeneration of Dunfermline city centre.

The SNP announced Shirley-Anne Somerville as their candidate on 16 September 2013, having chosen her from a shortlist of two, defeating Fife councillor Karen Marjoram. At the time she was director of communities at Yes Scotland, the campaign group supporting Scottish independence in the Scottish independence referendum, 2014 . Somerville failed to win a seat in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, but was appointed as a Regional List MSP for the Lothians later in 2007 (following the resignation of another SNP MSP) and served until the 2011 election. Somerville and SNP party leader Alex Salmond apologised for Walker's tenure.

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