Will Ukip ever win another by-election?

LABOUR’S male supporters don’t vote Labour, they vote ‘not Tory’. Their wives often voted ‘not Labour’ in the past because Tories were better-looking, more prosperous or offered a better future to those who aspired, which meant mainly women thinking about their children’s future. Hence the switching results across the North pre-Blair and his New Labour project. Ukip’s huge mistake was tactical. To impress supposedly Labour voters who, it’s believed, voted for Brexit in the referendum, they attacked Labour in Copeland and Stoke. Big mistake. Had they attacked the Tories, they would have received more of the ‘not-Tory’ Labour vote from the male electorate and achieved two more MPs.

JIM WALLBANK, Leicester. DESPITE the results in last week’s by-elections, it would be foolish to write off Ukip. In Copeland, the Conservatives were able to capitalise on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s hostility to nuclear power. In Stoke, by contrast, despite hard work by many Ukip activists, no local issue caught fire with the electorate. In Copeland there was a clear

challenger to the incumbent Labour Party, while in Stoke, Ukip and the Tories were running neck and neck in the last general election. There was little motivation for people to vote for a particular party to defeat Labour. A third factor is that Ukip had no local councillors in Stoke Central. In future, where at least two of these three factors come together — Ukip being a clear challenger, the party having local councillors and inspiring local issues — Ukip can and will win by-elections.

OTTO INGLIS, Edinburgh.