Yahoo Finance Batley and Spen: Relief for Sir Keir Starmer as Labour cling on in bitter by-election
Kim Leadbeater has won the Batley and Spen by-election in a tight result which will allow Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to breathe a sigh of relief.
Labour faced turmoil if the West Yorkshire seat was lost, but Ms Leadbetter's success will ease the pressure on Sir Keir.
She took the seat with 13,296 votes, a razor-thin 323 majority of over Tory candidate Ryan Stephenson after a bitter contest.
George Galloway, who targeted voters in traditionally Labour areas with the aim of toppling Sir Keir, came third.
Kim Leadbeater said she hoped to do her sister – the MP Jo Cox murdered by a far-right extremist in 2016 – proud as the new MP.
A senior Labour source said: “Everyone’s been calling this a referendum on Keir’s leadership.
“Well we’ve won – bucked the trend, held onto this marginal seat and advanced in Tory areas. A fantastic result.”
Sir Keir hailed the "fantastic result" for the "brilliant and brave" Ms Leadbeater after a contest marred by allegations of dirty tricks and violence.
Fantastic result for the brilliant and brave @KimLeadbeater.
Kim ran a positive campaign of hope, in the face of division.
She will be an outstanding Labour MP for Batley and Spen.— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 2, 2021
In her acceptance speech, Ms Leadbeater said: "I'm absolutely delighted that the people of Batley and Spen have rejected division and they've voted for hope."
She thanked her family saying "without them I could not have got through the last five years nevermind the last five weeks."
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted: "Congrats to @kimleadbeater and the whole Labour team. Thank you to the people of Batley & Spen It was so good to see so many activists out on the doorstep".
Mr Galloway, who came third in the contest, had previously promised Owen Jones that he would “eat his hat” if Labour didn’t come third.
Speaking outside the count, he said his election effort had been damaged by a "false statement" that he had laughed while Labour's Kim Leadbeater was abused on the campaign trail.
"The whole election campaign was dominated by lazy and false tropes about our campaign, about the thousands of people that voted for us, about their motives for doing so, in a way which defamed them as much as it defamed me," he said.
"So on multiple grounds we will apply to the courts for this election result to be set aside."
Brendan Cox, the widower of Jo Cox, the Batley and Spen MP who was murdered in Batley by a far-right extremist in June 2016 during the EU referendum campaign, tweeted: “We are all incredibly proud of @kimleadbeatertoday and Jo would have been too. “While the result between the two main parties was close the extremists & haters were left trailing. The people of Batley & Spen have voted for decency and positivity once again.”
A Tory MP called the by-election loss a ”missed opportunity“ amid tactical voting concerns with the Lib Dem vote dropping from 2,462 to 1,254.
They told the Huffington Post: “Whilst a complex local picture, Labour did everything they could to hand us the seat, but again our ground operation failed to take advantage. CCHQ again too clever for its own good, whilst Labour managed to scramble over the line. Massively missed opportunity.”
Political commentator Owen Jones tweeted about Galloway’s bullish promise to eat his Trilby,
Finally, George Galloway promised me that he'd eat his hat if Labour didn't come third.
So he should keep to his promise. Come on, @georgegalloway, do it on camera by the end of the day. You can have it with ketchup, that's still within the rules.— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) July 2, 2021
After the result, Ms Leadbeater opened up on the bitterness and harassment she received throughout the campaign trail.
“I have conducted a very positive campaign. I have focused very much on the good people of Batley and Spen. I am incredibly grateful to the people of Batley and Spen for putting their trust in me,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“Sadly we have seen some poor behaviour. There have been situations where I have felt very intimidated.
“We have had some of our campaigners had things thrown at them and somebody has been arrested. There have been moments of real unpleasantness.”
Kim Leadbeater added she hoped to do her sister – the MP Jo Cox murdered by a far-right extremist – proud in her former seat.
“It was a very big decision to put myself forward. It has been a very emotional campaign and today is very emotional for me for lots of reasons,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“But if I can be half the MP Jo was I know I will do her proud and I will do my family proud.”
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