I know by elections don’t tell the whole story, and council by elections may say even less. But Liberal Conspiracy picks up on some results from yesterday which look pretty telling:
Labour won a stunning by-election victory last night in Wednesbury North, in the Sandwell borough (near Birmingham)
The results were:
Labour: 1320
Conservative: 643
National Front: 76
Libdem: 45
Green: 42
It meant the Conservatives lost a council seat they’ve held for the last 36 years in the predominantly Labour borough.
The result marks a massive 16.5% swing from Conservative to Labour since May 2010. Two years ago they took 20% of vote. Last night they won 62% of the vote.
Councillor Bob Piper was very happy.
It was a good night for Labour elsewhere too. The party won both seats at the Croxteth by-election in Liverpool
The results were:
Labour: 1447 / 1424
Libdems: 611/479
SLP: 135/70
BNP: 117
Greens: 63
UKIP: 50 / 19
English Democrats: 35 / 33
Conservatives: 31 / 29 (yes, they came last!)
Yes — the Tories came last, after all the right wing fringe. That is amazing.
And a sign of things to come.
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Sorry, I might be getting on a bit, but how are the Conservatives in last place based on that information?
I wish I could feel unalloyed joy at his, but unless Labour is a very different party now than it has been since 1997, there is little to celebrate here. Other than that the ConDems may be beginning to reap what they’re sowing. Which is, of course, excellent as far as it goes.
Maybe Labour will be galvanised into becoming a truly radical and progressive party, as it promised to be in its youth. I won’t be holding my breath though.
@Robbie Pennington
A radical and progressive party is what we need
And we got Alan Johnson
Labour will make gains in the short-term as the LibDem voters punish the party for their part in the coalition (come the next election, Cameron will have effectively decapitated the LibDems anyway following Sheffield Forgemasters and tuition fees). Labour therefore have some time but Miliband Minor is not inspiring any sort of confidence from my point of view.
@Deeply Depressed
Milliband Minor – where he? The current round of red infighting is much the most amusing thing on the news at the moment.
@alastair
paternity leave
@Richard Murphy
might end up being the longest paternity leave in history 😆 Seems to be open season on milli minor from his parliamentary colleagues at the moment.