Two stunning by-election results for Labour

By Anthony Painter / @anthonypainter

Labour are motoring in the West Midlands after two major by-election victories last night. The first was in Nuneaton – Camp Hill – where Jayne Innes is the PPC. An incredible local campaign wrenched the seat out of the hands of the BNP with the Tories a miserable third. The results were:

Labour 670
BNP 478
Conservatives 273

Ian Lloyd was elected for the Labour Party.

The by-election was triggered by the resignation of former BNP Councillor Darren Haywood, who had failed to attend council in over four months. Says it all really.

The other was in Areley King ward in Wyre Forest and it was a gain from the Tories who were beaten back into third place. The results were:

Labour 544
Health Concern 421
Conservative 394
UKIP 63

Jamie Shaw was elected for the Labour Party.

A Labour source in the region told me:

“In one sense these wins didn’t come as a surprise – we’ve been picking up a hardening of Labour’s vote across the region for a few weeks now. However, it does show that we’ve got on-the-ground resilience – and credit to the hard work of our campaigners in Nuneaton and Wyre Forest. As the election becomes less a referendum on the Government and more of a straight choice, we expect a further hardening of Labour’s support.”

This post was also published on Anthony’s blog.