Labour suffers landmark defeat
In election seen as key test, Ukip who campaigned for Brexit, fail to capitalise on June referendum vote
Britain’s main opposition Labour Party defeated Ukip’s leader in a Brexit bastion, but in a second byelection suffered a landmark defeat to Prime Minister Theresa May’s governing Conservatives yesterday.
The results saw the Brexitchampioning UK Independence Party (Ukip) fail to capitalise on the June referendum vote to leave the European Union.
But while Labour celebrated fending off Ukip’s bid to replace them in their traditional post-industrial heartlands, the historic loss elsewhere of a seat to the Conservatives was a big blow to their prospects in the 2020 general election.
In Thursday’s two parliamentary by-elections, Labour clung on to its Stoke-on-Trent Central seat, in the British city that registered the highest vote for leaving the EU.
Labour’s Gareth Snell took 37 per cent of the vote, beating new Ukip leader Paul Nuttall, who garnered 25 per cent. In a town where voter apathy runs deep, turnout stood at 38 per cent.
Nuttall insisted the defeat did not mark the end of Ukip.
But Labour’s relief at retaining Stoke-on-Trent Central could not mask the impact of their loss of the rural seat of Copeland on the northwest English coast. Conservative Trudy Harrison hailed a “truly historic event” after winning the by-election with 44 per cent to 37 per cent for Labour’s Gillian Troughton.
It was the first time a governing party has taken an opposition-held seat in a byelection since 1982.
Many jobs in the constituency depend on the Sellafield nuclear processing facility, and veteran leftist Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s strong anti-nuclear stance may have damaged the party’s fortunes.
“Labour’s victory in Stoke is a decisive rejection of Ukip’s politics,” Corbyn wrote on Twitter. “But our message was not enough to win through in Copeland.