https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/20/labour-overturns-huge-tory-majority-to-win-tamworth-byelection
Keir Starmer’s party wins seat for first time since bellwether byelection in 1996
Tamworth finally does the right thing. With the low turn out looks like Tories didn't show up rather than vote for another party.
Voter turnout was low at 35.87%, little more than half the 2019 figure.
This is indicative of the general apathy across the country. People are fed up with politicians as they are seen as so removed from the rest of us. Partying during lockdowns, skimming money here there and everywhere, breaking laws that would see the like of us in jail and generally not giving a fetid dingoe's kidney about anyone but themselves.
I wouldn’t read that much into it. By-election turnouts are almost always dreadful for many reasons and apathy is only one of them.
I would have thought that better turn out would have been quite high if I need to get rid of the useless incumbents.
No one wants another Tory in the seat, especially if they're going to lose the next election. If you're smart you want to be a represented by a member of the winning party, regardless of your national political views.
It is more indicative of tory support in a tory heartland.
We know an area that voted this woman in with a very large majority. Is likely not to be enammered with labour. Even when as right wing as they now are.
So in this situation who do you think the people who supported 2019 tories but are now pissed are going to vote for. No vote will always be more likely.
Now when other parties are running national campaigns pointing out how important a vote is. But honestly no vote here was going to make a measurable difference to the near future.
And here lies the true damage - the Tories have spent the last 14 years conflating their misdeeds with those of all politicians.
They are not 'all the same'. They never have been.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Thursday night proved to be a signal occasion for Labour which also swept away a huge Tory majority to win Mid Bedfordshire, the former seat of Nadine Dorries.
In her victory speech, Edwards said the voters of Tamworth had “sent a clear message to Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives that they have had enough of this failed government, which has crashed the economy and destroyed our public services.
The byelection was called when Chris Pincher, a former deputy chief whip, quit the House of Commons in September after losing an appeal against an eight-week suspension from parliament for groping two men at a private members’ club last summer.
Cooper came under fire this week after it emerged he had shared a Facebook post in 2020 telling jobless parents who cannot feed their children to “fuck off” if they still pay a £30 phone bill.
Rishi Sunak refused to condemn Cooper’s comments at prime minister’s questions, saying he was proud of the government’s record on supporting families during the cost of living crisis.
Prior to some minor boundary changes, the constituency was called South East Staffordshire and was held by the Tories from 1983 to 1996, when Labour won a byelection to take the seat in a 22-point swing.
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