Leadbeater calls for change in way politics is conducted
NEW BATLEY and Spen MP Kim Leadbeater has called for a change in the way politics is carried out after Labour hung on to win in a bruising by-election.
Ms Leadbeater squeezed home by just 323 votes after a bitter and divisive campaign that many had predicted the party would lose.
The result came as a huge relief to beleaguered Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer after the party’s damaging loss in the Hartlepool by-election in May.
On a visit to the constituency to celebrate, Sir Keir paid tribute to the “incredible courage” of Ms Leadbeater in standing in the place where her sister, the MP Jo Cox, was murdered in 2016.
Speaking to reporters, he acknowledged the Labour vote had been split by the campaign of leftwinger George Galloway who targeted the constituency’s Muslim voters in an attempt to topple his leadership.
However he suggested that they had been saved by former Tory voters who rejected the “divisive” politics of the Workers Party leader and former Bradford West MP.
Ms Leadbeater secured the seat, which Labour held at the 2019 general election with a 3,525 majority, with 13,296 votes, narrowly beating Conservative Ryan Stephenson on 12,973 with Mr Galloway third with 8,264.
Appearing alongside Ms Leadbeater in front of cheering supporters, Sir Keir, who could have seen his leadership threatened if they had lost, declared: “Labour is back. Labour is coming home”.
He said the result represented a “victory of hope over division” in a campaign “poisoned” by lies, harassment and intimidation.
While Mr Galloway had taken votes from Labour, Sir Keir said the Tories had paid the price for failing to criticise his tactics.
“We won this election against the odds,” he said. “The Tories thought they could sit back, say nothing about harassment and they were wrong about that.
“Kim has won this because Tories in Batley and Spen, former Tory voters, voted for her. The left vote, the Labour vote, was split but we won.”
Earlier an emotional Ms Leadbeater, who thanked the police for their protection during the campaign, said she would seek to heal the divisions that had been opened up in the constituency.
“If I can be half the MP Jo was I know I will do her proud and I will do my family proud,” she said.
It followed a campaign marked by accusations of violence and dirty tricks as Labour supporters and Mr Galloway’s Workers Party battled for votes in the constituency’s Asian communities.
At the final weekend, Labour activists said they were pelted with eggs and kicked in the head, while police said an 18-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of assault in connection with an attack on canvassers.
Mr Galloway said he would take legal action to get the result set aside, claiming his election effort had been damaged by a “false statement” that he had laughed while Ms Leadbeater was abused on the campaign trail. “The whole election campaign was dominated by lazy and false tropes about our campaign, about the thousands of people that voted for us, about their motives for doing so, in a way which defamed them as much as it defamed me,” he said.
Elsewhere, Liberal Democrat Tom Gordon came fourth with 1,254 votes and Corey Robinson of the Yorkshire Party fifth with 816.
AT THE end of a campaign that had been loud, divisive and bitter, you could have heard a pin drop in the final moments of the Batley and Spen by-election.
The constituency had been predicted as an easy win for Conservative candidate Ryan Stephenson. Disaster was expected for Labour again in yet another northern English seat it had held for decades.
But throughout the evening, figures on both the Tory and Labour sides had been keen to keep their cards as close to their chest as they possibly could, with rumours starting to swirl that the eventual result could be close.
Despite this, there was still surprise in the Huddersfield counting hall in the early hours of yesterday when it was announced that bundles of ballots would be double checked not once, but twice.
Then Brendan Cox posted a tweet. “More in common x,” he said. Minutes before the vote was officially declared, that nod to the maiden speech of his late wife Jo Cox indicated that her sister and Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater had pulled off a shock victory by the narrowest of margins.
Amid some pessimism in the days and hours leading up to the close of polls, Labour activists campaigning in the constituency in the final few days before the vote couldn’t have spoken more