In sharp contrast with the result from Makerfield, Labour had a terrible night in Scotland, losing nearly 20% vote share in both seats.
For some in the party, the results will spell out the risk to Labour of going into the next set of elections without a change of personality at the top.
Even though they held on in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, and have only just won a fresh mandate at the Scottish Parliament, the result in Aberdeen South also holds a warning for the SNP and its leader, John Swinney.
The two Scottish by-elections were called because SNP MPs were elected to Holyrood and had to give up their seats at Westminster.
One of them, the former SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, has been put straight into Swinney’s cabinet, but is widely believed to have leadership ambitions of his own.
Following the result, he tweeted it was “a tough night in Aberdeen that some will need to reflect on, quite heavily”.
Who could he mean? Flynn hasn’t said – yet.
