Scottish Labour dealt a blow to the Sturgeon political dynasty as the party wrested a council seat from the SNP in Irvine on Thursday night.

Louise McPhater, who manages a local community centre, said she wanted to put Irvine back on the map following her stunning Irvine West by-election victory.

Ms McPhater snatched the victory from none other than Nicola Sturgeon’s father, who bitterly claimed that the “Labour-Tory alliance” was “alive and well” following his defeat.

However Ms McPhater said her victory was down to Scottish Labour leading a campaign that the local community could relate to.

Speaking after her victory, Ms McPhater said: “They’ve obviously had the faith and they’ve listened and that’s all I could have done — went to their doors and asked and related to them. A lot of people are disengaged and have no faith and I think people have had enough and on top of that the real issues weren’t being dealt with.”

Ms McPhater said she wanted people “to feel more empowered” and tackle issues such as the huge level of deprivation in Ayrshire,Ms McPhater said she had a “big responsibility” and pledged to do her utmost to deliver.

Mr Sturgeon polled the highest number of first preference votes, but Ms McPhater won out after six rounds in the single transferable vote system.

Labour is now the biggest party on North Ayrshire council, though it is expected that the SNP will maintain control as a minority administration.

The North Ayrshire council by-election was held to fill the seat left by Ruth Maguire, who was elected to Holyrood to serve as an SNP MSP in May. 

Elsewhere the SNP won a seat from Labour in the Renfrewshire council by-election, which had been triggered by the death of a Labour councillor.