Miliband and Alexander respond to by-election results

This morning both Ed Miliband and campaign chief Douglas Alexander were out in the media responding to last night’s by-election results. In a pooled clip this morning, Miliband said that tories  are “in retreat on what used to be their frontline in the northwest..” but he went on to say “there won’t be a shred of complacency from us as we reach out to all of those voters who didn’t vote Labour and those who didn’t vote at all.”

Douglas Alexander was on the Today Programme this morning, and stressed that Labour must tackle UKIP by taking on the alienation that people feel towards politics:

“The coming months are not simply going to be a battle between Labour and the Conservatives; it’s going to be a battle against the sense of alienation and despair that so many people feel about politics and how it’s been done in the past.

“I absolutely believe that we can win the general election, but we’ve got a great deal of work to do. The way that you defeat a party like Ukip is conversation-by-conversation, doorstep-by-doorstep, street-by-street and community-by-community and that’s exactly what we intend to do in the months between now and next May.”