Wellingborough by-election results: Meet MP Genevieve Kitchen after huge swing

Labour’s candidate Gen Kitchen has won in Wellingborough with the second biggest ever Tory-Labour swing in a by-election, overturning a huge Conservative majority to become the Northamptonshire constituency’s first Labour MP since 2005.

Labour’s second by-election victory of the night after success in Kingswood saw it manage to take a seat which former Tory MP Peter Bone, who was suspended for misconduct, had won with a majority of 18,540 at the 2019 general election.

Kitchen secured 13,844 votes (45.9%) to the Tories’ 7,408 (24.6%) and Reform’s 3,919 (13%).  The turnout was 38.1%.

The swing of more than 28% is better than any Labour by-election performance yet in this parliament, and second only to the record Tory-to-Labour postwar swing seen in Dudley West in 1994 (29.1%).

In Kitchen’s victory speech, she said the people of Wellingborough had “spoken for Britain”, showing how “desperately” voters want change.

“People here…know our roads aren’t fit to drive on, getting your child a doctor’s appointment can seem impossible, and that they are paying more and getting less. Today they said, enough is enough.”

Biggest Con-Lab by-election swing since 2019 and second biggest since 1945.

Thanks to @DanielJDunford for these excellent and speedily-produced graphs pic.twitter.com/xXS5UeUY0b

— Tamara Cohen (@tamcohen) February 16, 2024

She told Sky News that tackling the “health desert” in access to services in the area will be her priority.

She said the new Labour majority of more than 6,000 was higher than expected, but Labour’s campaign had managed to speak to some 13,000 constituents during the campaign.

It follows Labour’s sizeable victory in the night’s other by-election in Kingswood, with Damien Egan elected the area’s new MP on a 16.4% swing.

Shadow minister Emily Thornberry had told LabourList in the final hours on the doorstep on Thursday “we’re all a bit nervy”, but it had been clear voters she had spoken to were “not voting Tory”. They were “coming back to Labour but still being a bit shy about it” in a longstanding Tory seat.

Leader Keir Starmer said: “These are fantastic results in Kingswood and Wellingborough that show people want change…By winning in these Tory strongholds, we can confidently say that Labour is back in the service of working people and we will work tirelessly to deliver for them.”

Who is new MP Gen Kitchen?

Wellingborough By-Election Result:

🌹 LAB: 45.9% (+19.4)
🌳 CON: 24.6% (-37.6)
➡️ RFM: 13.0% (New)
🔶 LDM: 4.7% (-3.2)
🙋 IND (Tur): 3.7% (New)
🌍 GRN: 3.4% (-0.1)
🙋 IND (Wat): 1.8% (New)
🥇 BF: 1.6% (New)
🎩 MRLP: 0.7% (New)
🙋 IND (Pyn): 0.6% (New)
🙋 IND (J.M P-M): 0.1%…

— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) February 16, 2024

Kitchen was formerly a councillor in Newham, London and has worked in the charity sector for much of her career. She previously stood as the Labour candidate for South Northamptonshire in 2019, coming second behind the Tories.

Kitchen grew up in Northamptonshire and told LabourList in an interview ahead of the by-election that she hoped a Labour win “will be the domino effect” for the county and for the East Midlands more widely.

“I want this to build the momentum,” she said. “Particularly in Northamptonshire, where we’ve been Conservative for so long at so many different levels.”

Peter Bone had held the seat for the Tories for almost two decades

Wellingborough had been represented in parliament by former Tory MP Peter Bone for almost two decades. He was reelected in 2019 with an increased majority. Labour previously held the seat between 1997 and 2005.

The results will be widely seen as a reflection of voter anger not just at the Conservative record nationally but at the area’s former MP, however.

by-election was triggered after 13.2% of local voters signed a recall petition, surpassing the 10% needed to call a by-election. The petition followed Bone’s suspension from the Commons after he was found to have “committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct” against a member of his staff.

Bone said after the result of the recall petition was announced that the petition “came about as a result of an inquiry into alleged bullying and misconduct towards an ex-employee which was alleged to have occurred more than ten years ago. These allegations are totally untrue and without foundation”.

Bone’s partner stood as the Tory candidate in the latest by-election.