Huge win for Tories after thumping Labour in main by-election blow to Keir Starmer | Politics | News | EUROtoday

The Conservative Party has given Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour a thumping in a by-election in Northamptonshire.

Jason Smithers, the Tory chief of North Northamptonshire Council, hailed the victory within the Desborough by-election as an “excellent” consequence for the native occasion.

According to Britain Elects the Conservatives gained 47.3 p.c of the vote, a 7.5 proportion level rise, in opposition to Labour’s 33.6 p.c (a six p.c rise). The Greens gained 11.7 p.c and the Lib Dems 7.4 p.c.

Conservative candidate Bill McElhinney polled 1,485 votes, beating Labour’s Rikki Tod into second place with 1,054 votes.

The by-election was known as after the demise of Cllr Mike Tebbutt.

Mr Smithers wrote on X: “Excellent results for the local conservative group. It was a well-run campaign and a fantastic turnout.

“It’s clear by this consequence the nice individuals of Desborough imagine within the Conservatives and got here out in help to ship a transparent message that Labour isn’t welcomed domestically.”

Both Labour and the Tories had hit the campaign trail hard, according to the Northamptonshire Telegraphwith Labour’s general election candidate for Kettering, Rosie Wrighting, spearheading their campaign.

She told the same publication: “We won’t have gained, however seeing this massive swing in one of the vital rural wards in our constituency provides us actually good hope going into the final election.”

News of the Conservative victory comes at the end of a week in which the party was confronted by dire polling, showing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on course to suffer a general election defeat similar to the Conservatives’ 1997 wipeout.

YouGov polling found Labour would win 403 seats across the UK, leading to a 154-seat majority in the House of Commons.

The Conservatives would win 155 seats, down from the 365 seats they won at the 2019 general election.

The analysis, which uses the multi-level regression and poststratification (MRP) method of polling, found prominent Tory figures including Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt, Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg would be on course to lose their seats.

Asked by The Sun newspaper’s Never Mind the Ballots programme about the Conservatives’ drop in the polls, Mr Sunak said: “It has been a irritating time and I fully admire that. There’s going to be a number of polls. What issues is the final election and that is what I’m specializing in.”

Meanwhile, election experts Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher have said the Tories “stand to lose as much as 500 seats” in May’s native elections, which might symbolize round half of their councillors dealing with election.