Labour candidate puts NHS at heart of final push for next by-election

Labour aims to boost its support while fending off a challenge from UKIP when the second Brexit by-election takes place on Thursday.

Jim Clarke, Labour’s candidate in Sleaford and North Hykeham, has been boosted by a series of visits from Jeremy Corbyn and shadow cabinet ministers as he aims to make up ground on the Tories, who won comfortably last year.

UKIP was a close third – fewer than a thousand votes shy of Labour’s total. Senior UKIP figures, including the new leader Paul Nuttall and former leader Nigel Farage have been campaigning in the area, showing how the party thinks it can make gains in this fiercely anti-EU part of the country. However, Farage was spotted in front a UKIP poster which had misspelt the name of the constituency, and such blunders are hardly likely to help his party’s chances. The UKIP candidate is Victoria Ayling.

Clarke has been helped by supporting visits from Jon Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, to campaign on the NHS. Jon Trickett, Labour’s national campaigns co-ordinator, visited yesterday.

After last week’s Brexit by-election in Richmond, which saw Leave-supporting former Tory MP Zac Goldsmith lose to the strongly Remain candidate Sarah Olney of the Lib Dems, Sleaford is similarly overshadowed by the vote to leave the EU, albeit in a very different way.

Sleaford and North Hykeham is part of an area which voted 62.3 per cent for Brexit. Clarke has had to deal with the Brexit issue quite differently to the Labour candidate in Richmond, Christian Wolmar, with Clarke interpreting immigration as playing a “big part” in the Brexit vote. In comparison Wolmar had pledged to vote against article 50 in parliament at the final hustings in Richmond.

Clarke’s campaign has seen a big focus on the NHS, fitting in with Labour’s recent campaigning on the issue and seeing it as a useful tactic to chip away at Tory support in the constituency. Whilst anything other than a Conservative victory would be a surprise, a strong focus on an area where they are vulnerable raises the pressure on Theresa May. The Tories’ seem to have recognised this as an area of weakness, with choosing a doctor, Caroline Johnson, as their candidate.