Keir Starmer hails 'seismic' Blackpool South byelection win, pointing to 'historic swing'
Keir Starmer has said the Blackpool South byelection win was “seismic” with a “truly historic swing” showing that people in the constituency are voting “overwhelmingly” for change. He called it the most “important result” declared today.
The 26.33% swing was the third biggest from the Conservatives to Labour at a byelection since the second world war.
Starmer said:
This seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today.
This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.
The swing towards the Labour party in Blackpool South is truly historic and shows that we are firmly back in the service of working people.
I am so proud of the positive campaign we ran. To those who have put their trust in us in Blackpool, and those considering giving Labour their vote, we are ready to serve your interests.
Our new Labour MP Chris Webb has shown that after years of neglect with the Tories, there is a better alternative. The message to Rishi Sunak is clear. It’s time for change, it’s time for a general election.
The local and firm favourite Chris Webb won with 10,825 votes, followed by David Jones, the Conservative candidate, with a distant 3,218 votes, who finished narrowly ahead of the Reform candidate, Mark Butcher, on 3,101 votes.
New Blackpool South MP says Sunak has 'failed' and demands a general election
In his victory speech, the new Blackpool South MP, Chris Webb, said the message to Rishi Sunak is that people no longer “trust the Conservatives”, as he urged the embattled prime minister to admit he has “failed” and to call a general election.
He blamed the Conservatives for the high rate of child poverty in parts of the constituency and said not enough is being done to help people through the cost-of-living crisis. He said the Tories have “crashed” the economy, put up taxes and “destroyed” public services.
Webb, who has promised to try to bring regeneration to his constituency, said he is humbled that every ward in the town voted for him.
“People are fed up because nothing seems to work any more. Hard up because of the Conservative cost-of-living crisis. But instead of giving up they got up and voted for change with Labour,” he said.
Webb added:
The message to the prime minister is that we need a general election – sooner the better. People no longer trust the Conservatives. Prime minister, do the decent thing: admit you failed and call a general election.
Give the people of Britain the same opportunity people in Blackpool South have – a Labour MP and Keir Starmer in Downing Street. And let Labour get on with delivering the change the people of Britain want and deserve.
"Prime minister, do the decent thing, admit you've failed and call a general election"
Labour's newest MP Chris Webb sends a message to Rishi Sunak after claiming victory in Blackpool South by-election
Labour regains Blackpool South in significant byelection blow to Rishi Sunak
Labour has regained the key seat of Blackpool South in Thursday’s byelection, with local and firm favourite Chris Webb securing 10,825 votes to cruise to victory.
The Conservative candidate, David Jones, got 3,218 and the Reform candidate Mark Butcher got 3,101 votes.
BREAKING — Tories get second place but only 107 votes ahead of Reform UK in Blackpool South by-election
It means that Rishi Sunak’s leadership is in fresh peril after the defection of the former Conservative health minister Dr Dan Poulter to Labour last week and the potential loss of huge swaths of the party’s councillors could ignite rebellious Tories to defy the prime minister’s authority and go over the line with letters of no confidence.
The “red wall” Blackpool South constituency had been held by the Tories since 2019. Before then, it had been considered a safe Labour seat since 1997 and was held by Gordon Marsden, whom Webb had previously worked for as an adviser.
The Conservative candidate for Blackpool South faced competition from Reform’s Mark Butcher, a local businessman who runs a soup kitchen being probed by the Charity Commission over claims it was used to promote his campaign.
Cabinet minister Chris Heaton-Harris accepted earlier that Blackpool South was likely to be lost by the Conservatives.
The Northern Ireland Secretary said it was “going to be a tough seat for us to hold” given the scandal which led to it.
Labour gained the Cumbria police and crime commissioner from the Conservatives, with David Allen gaining a majority of 13,845, and the Liberal Democrat candidate on 18,100.
The turnout was just under 21%, slightly up on Lincolnshire PCC, where it was just under 19%.
As the candidates and their campaign nervously await the declaration in the Blackpool South byelection, Reform UK’s candidate Mark Butcher – battling it out for second place with the Tories – tells me “it’s close, really close – there’s about 50 votes in it”.
Labour is expected to win back the seat, which fell vacant after the former Tory MP Scott Benton resigned after breaching standards rules in a lobbying scandal.
Benton won the once solidly Labour-voting constituency in the 2019 election with a 3,690 majority.
Tories win first police and crime commissioner election to be declared
The Conservatives won the first police and crime commissioner (PCC) election to be declared, in Lincolnshire.
The party retained the PCC, with Marc Jones winning with 39,639 votes, a majority of 7,708 over Labour, with Reform UK third on 15,518, ahead of the Liberal Democrats on 13,380 and the English Democrats on 7,739.
These are the first PCC elections to use the first-past-the-post system.
Introduced in 2012 to replace police authorities, PCCs were intended to make police forces more accountable and responsive to their local community.
John Curtice analysis: Early results won't provide 'solace to No 10' but Labour wins are not comparable to 'dramatic' gains Blair made before 1997 general election landslide
Prof John Curtice, the polling expert, has said that, according to the early results, Labour are not making the sort of “dramatic” gains the party did under Tony Blair before its landslide 1997 general election victory.
They are doing more or less the same as they did in last year’s elections, Curtice said, while noting that early local election results “don’t look as though they’re going to provide that much solace to 10 Downing Street”.
“It is not looking very good for the Conservatives, I think one has to say,” he told BBC Politics.
“Put it like this: there are two things that perhaps the Conservatives would prefer to avoid …
“One that the Conservatives end up losing 500 seats, which as it were that the worst scenario that was painted for them and two that their performance of these local elections when we kind of add up the votes is probably going to end up being a little bit worse than it was last year.”
Prof Sir John Curtice says early local election results "don't look as though they're going to provide that much solace to 10 Downing Street"
Some psephologists have predicted the Conservatives could lose 500 council seats – about half of those the party is defending this time around.
This set of local council seats was last contested in May 2021, when the Conservatives under Johnson were at a high point after the UK’s Covid vaccine rollout, and the party enjoyed its strongest performance since 2008.
“Put those two things together the broad message from the local ballot boxes will be that Rishi Sunak’s principal political project, which is to try to narrow the lead on Labour, has not really made much progress, is what the polls have been telling us. It’s now increasingly looking that is what the local ballot boxes are going to tell us too,” Curtice continued.
“And there is plenty for Labour to be happy about but in effect it looks as though we’re talking about Labour doing more or less as well as they did last year, which is not bad and it’s roughly what the opinion polls were saying.
“But it’s still the case that Labour are not heading for the kind of really dramatic local election performances that they managed to achieve under Tony Blair before the 1997 general election.
“We’re still in a very different world from that, not least because of the success of the Greens, which is also notable in these elections and which has for some time been hurting Labour – though nothing like to the same extent to which Reform have been hurting the Conservatives.”
Curtice has said that the Conservatives have not managed to close the gap with Labour since last year and that the smaller parties are chipping away at the support of the two main parties in Westminster (Greens to Labour and Reform to the Conservatives).
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