Blackpool South by-election results: Watch new MP Chris Webb’s speech after 3rd biggest swing since WW2

Labour’s Chris Webb has won an important victory in the one Westminster by-election being held amid local elections, the Blackpool South seat it lost it in 2019.

Pollster Luke Tryl called it a “seismic” victory given the party’s 59% share of the vote, versus the Tories’ 18%. The swing of 26% marks the third biggest Tory-Labour swing since the Second World War, with the Conservatives only narrowly beating Reform.

Shadow paymaster general Jon Ashworth said the result “sparkles as brightly as Blackpool’s Illuminations”, and suggests “the country wants change”.

Keir Starmer also called it “seismic” and “the most important result today”, adding: This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.

“The swing towards the Labour Party in Blackpool South is truly historic and shows that we are firmly back in the service of working people.”

The newest Labour MP-in-waiting Chris Webb said in his victory speech voters were “sick of the government’s failure to tackle the big issues facing our country”, and demanded an election. The BBC’s now shared the clip:

Labour candidate Chris Webb has described himself as “Blackpool born and bred, a true Sangrown’un” and son of a local postman and teaching assistant. He lives in the town and previously served as head of office for the late Labour MP Tony Lloyd.

Webb was deputy police and crime commissioner for Lancashire from 2018 to 2021 and a councillor on Manchester City Council from 2015 to 2018. He chairs a local mental health charity in Blackpool, Counselling In The Community.

Momentum Co-Chair Kate Dove said: “We warmly congratulate Chris on his resounding victory. Momentum activists proudly campaigned for Chris, a fighting trade unionist who will bring real Labour values to Parliament, in place of the disgraced Scott Benton. This result is another loud message that after fourteen years of Tory austerity, voters want real change.”

The by-election was triggered by the resignation of former Tory MP Scott Benton, who announced that he was standing down while a recall petition was underway in the constituency after he lost the whip and then faced suspension from the Commons following a scandal.

Benton won the seat from Labour at the 2019 election, securing a majority of 3,690 votes. The constituency was previously held by Labour’s Gordon Marsden from 1997 to 2019, the seat’s first Labour MP.

The BBC reports the lates by-election turnout was 18,448 – around 32.5% of eligible voters, versus around 56.8% at the general election in 2019.

Read our coverage of the 2024 local elections here.

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