Labour ousted by Tories in Copeland byelection but sees off Ukip in Stoke

Labour has suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Conservative party in Copeland, a heartland seat dominated by the party since 1935, just half an hour after seeing off the Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, in a bitter battle for Stoke Central.

Many Labour MPs were privately blaming Jeremy Corbyn, and in particular his perceived hostility to the nuclear industry, for the loss of the Cumbrian seat, vacated by the resignation of Jamie Reed to work for Sellafield, the nuclear plant that is the biggest local employer.

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said the result in Copeland was “really disappointing” and the party would “learn lessons”, but he hit out at the former leader Tony Blair for criticising Labour just days before the byelections, and insisted Corbyn had no intention of stepping aside.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, McDonnell said: “There’s mixed views on Jeremy; the issue for me is, actually, he is a different type of leader; he is that sort of person who does listen, is decent and honest and brings people together. He’s not the kind of macho leader we’ve had in the past, and that’s why we’ve had the disasters that we’ve had. He is not someone who doesn’t recognise that our party now needs to rebuild itself from the grassroots in those communities like Copeland.”

Labour’s candidate in Copeland, Gillian Troughton, was defeated by the Conservatives’ Trudy Harrison, marking the first time a governing party has taken a seat from another party in a byelection in 35 years.

Nuttall’s defeat in Stoke raised doubts about the Ukip leader’s ambition to replace Labour as the voice of the working classes and will leave many questioning the party’s relevance, given that its share of the vote shrank in Copeland.

Both results were good news for Theresa May’s Conservative party, which has made a deliberate pitch for traditional Labour voters by focusing on “just about managing” families, and sought to see off Ukip by promising a “red, white and blue Brexit”, prioritising immigration control.

Gaining Copeland suggests the Tories could make inroads into areas previously considered safe Labour territory. While the Conservatives could not push Ukip into third place in Stoke, as they had hoped, there was a swing away from Nuttall’s party that benefited the Tories and will boost confidence at No 10 that Ukip can be neutralised.

The Ukip leader, who is from Merseyside and admitted he had few links to Stoke, had gambled that the seat was winnable on the basis of the constituency’s 69% leave vote in last year’s EU referendum. But he lost with 5,233 votes to Gareth Snell’s 7,853, leaving the seat vacated by Tristram Hunt in Labour hands.

default

The Conservatives’ Jack Brereton came a close third with 5,154 votes. Turnout was 38% in a seat where both Labour and Ukip had admitted they were battling apathy.

In his victory speech, Snell said his win proved Stoke would not allow itself to be defined by the referendum result. “The city lazily dubbed by some as the capital of Brexit has once again proven to the world that we are so much more than that,” he said.

“So for those who have come to Stoke-on-Trent to sow hatred and division, and to try to turn us away from our friends and neighbours, I have one message: you have failed,” he said to cheers from Labour activists.

Corbyn struck a more sombre note in a statement after the results were declared, heralding the Stoke victory as a “decisive rejection” of Ukip’s values. “But our message was not enough to win through in Copeland,” he said.

“In both campaigns, Labour listened to thousands of voters on the doorstep. Both constituencies, like so many in Britain, have been let down by the political establishment. To win power to rebuild and transform Britain, Labour will go further to reconnect with voters, and break with the failed political consensus.”

Labour MPs are expected to stay silent despite concerns about Corbyn’s leadership, fearing that a fresh outbreak of infighting would only inflict further damage on the party’s brand.

Richard Angell, the director of the centrist Labour pressure group Progress, said: “The Tory gain in Copeland makes the message clear. A hard-left Momentum-led Labour party is more repugnant to the voters than a Tory government closing a local maternity unit and urgent care centre. It is a disaster.”

In Copeland, on a turnout of 51%, the Conservatives took 13,748 votes to Labour’s 11,601. The Liberal Democrat candidate, Rebecca Hanson, came third with 2,252 votes.

default

Troughton left the count at Cleveland sports centre within minutes of the result being announced and without making a concession speech. She was heckled by a passerby who shouted “Sack Corbyn!” as she was rushed into a waiting car.

Harrison, a political novice, said in her victory speech: “What has happened here tonight is a truly historic event. You would have to go back more than a century to find an example of a governing party taking a seat from the opposition party in an election like this.

“We have had Labour here for more than 80 years but it has been very clear talking to people throughout this campaign that Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t represent them.

“They want a party which is on the side of ordinary working people, which will respect the way we voted in the referendum, and which will build a country which represents everyone. That’s why they voted for me tonight.”

Labour was battling to save a slim 2,564 majority left by Reed, an outspoken Corbyn critic who quit to take a job at the local Sellafield nuclear decommissioning plant.

Tory campaigners made much of an ITV Borders television interview by Corbyn at the end of January in which he failed four times to say he supported Moorside, a multibillion-pound nuclear plant planned to be built next to Sellafield.

Labour’s campaign focused heavily on Tory-backed plans to close the maternity unit at the new West Cumberland hospital, meaning the nearest service will be an hour-long drive away in Carlisle.

Troughton, a borough councillor, retired doctor and St John Ambulance driver who voted against Corbyn in the last leadership contest, consistently claimed the hospital was the “number one issue on the doorstep”.

Speaking after the result, Andrew Gwynne, the Labour MP for Denton and Reddish who ran Troughton’s campaign, conceded that the party “struggled to convince” voters that it backs nuclear power.