Sir Keir Starmer received a major boost after overturning a huge Tory majority in the Tamworth by-election.
In the Tories’ biggest loss to Labour in by-election history, Sir Keir’s party won the Staffordshire seat from the Conservatives. The Tories won the seat in 2019 with a 19,634 majority.
In a blow for Rishi Sunak, support for the Conservatives evaporated, with the seat turning red for the first time since it was won by David Cameron in 2010.
Labour’s candidate in Tamworth Sarah Edwards had likened the race to a 1996 by-election in which Labour gained the seat, a year before Tony Blair’s general election landslide.
Days before polls opened, it emerged the Conservative candidate in Tamworth had suggested some parents using food banks to feed their children should “f*** off”.
Andrew Cooper shared a post on Facebook arguing that people should only seek help if they give up basics like TV and mobile phone contracts, the Mirror reported.
Ms Edwards won the seat with a total of 11,719 votes, compared with Mr Cooper’s 10,403 votes.
Following the announcement of the results, Ms Cooper said the people of Tamworth “have made it clear it's time for change”.
She called for Mr Sunak to “do the decent thing and call a general election”. “Change is the question at the next election and the answer is labour,” Ms Edwards said.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the win was a “phenomenal result that shows Labour is back in the service of working people and redrawing the political map”.
He added: “To those who have given us their trust, and those considering doing so, Labour will spend every day acting in your interests and focused on your priorities. Labour will give Britain its future back.”
Labour pointed out that Tamworth was not a target seat for the party and is the 57th safest Conservative seat in the country.
And Luke Tryl, UK director at the More in Common group, said as well as Labour’s surge, the Conservatives should be worried about the strength of support for right-wing Reform UK.
“Just as ominous for the Tories the Reform UK vote in Tamworth is bigger than the Labour majority and the combined vote for parties of the populist/far right was almost 10 per cent,” he said.
Ms Edwards will replace Chris Pincher, who represented Tamworth since 2010 and stood down after being found to have drunkenly groped two men in an “egregious case of sexual misconduct” at London’s exclusive Carlton Club last year.
Labour said winning either Tamworth or Mid Bedfordshire, Nadine Dorries’s former seat, would be a “moon shot”.
