Labour’s Andrew Western eases to victory in Stretford and Urmston

Labour’s Andrew Western has been elected as the MP for Stretford and Urmston in a by-election on Thursday, securing 69.4% of the vote and a majority of 9,906.

Western, who has been leader of Trafford Council since 2018, takes over from Labour’s Kate Green. Green told local members in February this year that she would not be standing for re-election. She stepped down in November after being nominated as Greater Manchester’s deputy mayor for policing and crime.

Metropolitan mayors such as Andy Burnham, and their deputies, are not also allowed to sit as MPs at the same time if their mayoral responsibilities include powers over policing. The woman who Green is replacing, Bev Hughes, was also Green’s predecessor as MP for Stretford and Urmston.

In his acceptance speech this morning, Western said: “There has been a strong message sent with the result this evening and the people of Stretford and Urmston do not just speak for this constituency but for millions more people up and down the land who know that this government has been letting us down for the past 12 years.

“12 failing years of Conservative government coming to an end. The Tories having given up on governing and it is increasingly clear that the British people are giving up on them. Labour stands ready to deliver for our country.”

Stretford and Urmston

Lab: 69.4% (+9.3)
Con: 15.9% (-11.7)
Grn: 4.3% (+1.6)
LDem: 3.6% (-2.4)
Ref: 3.5% (+3.5)
Reu: 1.3% (+1.3)
Ind: 1.0% (+1.0)
Fa: 0.4% (+0.4)
SDP: 0.4% (+0.4)

Labour’s candidate defeated PR executive Emily Carter-Kandola, who stood for the Conservatives. High-profile Tory politicians have been conspicuously absent from the campaign in the seat, however. She secured 2,922 votes. Lib Dem candidate Anne Fryer came in fourth with 659 votes – behind Green Dan Jerrome with 789 votes.

Thursday’s by-election win represented Western’s third bid to become a Labour MP, having previously contested Altrincham and Sale West in the 2017 and 2019 general elections and reducing the Conservative majority on both occasions. Turnout in the election was the eighth lowest since World War Two at 25.8%.

Stretford and Urmston is considered a safe Labour seat. The party held the parliamentary constituency in every election since its creation in 1997. Green won re-election for the fourth time in 2019 with a majority of 16,417 votes.

First elected in 2010, Green was chair of the standards committee before she was given a child poverty brief by Keir Starmer in April 2020, before becoming Shadow Education Secretary. She has been a backbencher since a reshuffle in 2021.

Stretford and Urmston includes the Old Trafford area around Manchester United’s stadium, as well as the Trafford shopping centre. It is often described as the birthplace of the NHS after Trafford general hospital became the first NHS hospital when it was opened by the Labour health secretary Aneurin Bevan in 1948.

Labour also comfortably won the City of Chester by-election, which was triggered after Chris Matheson had the Labour whip withdrawn and then resigned when the Independent Expert Panel (IEP), the parliamentary watchdog, recommended he be suspended for “serious sexual misconduct”.