Labour Secures Major Win in By-Elections as Reform UK Rises

Sir Keir Starmer campaigns with Labour's by-election candidate Gen Kitchen at AFC Rushden and Diamonds in Rushden, England, on Feb. 13, 2024. Eddie Keogh/Getty Images

The Labour Party clinched significant swing victories against Tory candidates at by-elections on Thursday, as Reform UK ramped up its challenge with strong showings.

Labour’s Gen Kitchen and Damien Egan secured triumphs in Wellingborough and Kingswood, overturning Conservative majorities of 18,540 and 11,220, respectively.

These victories underscore a growing discontent among the electorate, with the turnout in Wellingborough recorded at 38.1 percent and just 37.11 percent in Kingswood.

The backdrop to these by-elections includes the suspension of former Tory MP Peter Bone, leading to the Wellingborough contest, and the resignation of Chris Skidmore in Kingswood over dissatisfaction with the government’s shifting in position on net zero targets, as internal strife over key policy direction grows within the Conservative ranks.

Results also underscored the emergence of the Reform Party as a genuine force, as the centre-right party finished third in both elections, with an impressive 13 percent of the vote in Wellingborough, and nearly 10.5 percent in Kingswood.

Labour Gains Set Landscape for Election

The Labour gains lay down a notable marker ahead of this year’s general election, with adverse by-election results challenging the ruling Tory party in a manner unseen since the tumultuous political landscape of the 1960s.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told media this morning, “I think there is a message now from these by-elections … I think the country is crying out for change. Everybody knows that,” and elaborated on the perceived failures of the Conservative Party, “Things aren’t working. Their NHS isn’t working. They’ve got a cost-of-living crisis. I think they’ve concluded that the Tories have failed after 14 years.”

The newly elected MPs, Gen Kitchen and Damien Egan, expressed their gratitude and determination to address the concerns of their constituents.

Mr. Kitchen highlighted the demand for change, “This shows that people are fed up, they want change, they want competency, they want pragmatism,” while Ms Egan focused on local issues, “The issues that people talked about time and time again were the NHS, the fact that nowhere in Kingswood can you get an NHS dentist, and how hard it is to find a doctor.”

Reform Hail ‘Remarkable’ Result

Ben Habib, Reform UK’s Deputy Leader and candidate for Wellingborough, lauded the result as “remarkable,” attributing the success to the party’s resonant messaging and strategic campaigning in a strongly pro-Brexit area.

Mr. Habib’s performance, bolstered by his background as a former MEP, evidently struck a chord with the electorate, aligning with the constituency’s Brexit-leaning tendencies.

In Kingswood, the Reform Party marked its second-best by-election performance ever with candidate Rupert Lowe’s better-than-expected result, surpassing the Reform’s national average in polls of 9 percent.

This achievement is particularly notable given the impending abolition of the Kingswood constituency, with Labour’s Damien Egan, the victor of the Kingswood by-election, set to represent the seat for only a brief tenure before transitioning to the newly formed Bristol North East constituency.

The run up to these electoral contests were complicated for Labour with internal challenges creating controversy. Comments made by their former parliamentary candidate, Azhar Ali, with regards to the conflict in Palestine, implied that Israel permitted the Oct. 7 attacks to occur and attributed the criticism of a pro-Palestinian Labour MP to individuals in the media “associated with certain Jewish quarters.”

Mr. Ali, who was selected for the upcoming Rochdale by-election, has been suspended from the party but will appear as a Labour candidate on the ballot due to electoral rules leaving it too late to remove him.

Mr. Habib’s commentary on his party’s newfound electoral success extended beyond mere celebration, as he criticised the current state of Tory governance and policy direction over immigration, claiming the Conservatives had facilitated Labour’s gains.

“The only reason Labour won is because the Tory party is utterly useless,” Mr. Habib told The Epoch Times, “What we’ve done, which is so wrong in the last 25 years, is throw open our borders so that we’ve had a rate of immigration, which the country simply can’t cope with, socially, culturally, or economically. It’s a myth, that somehow immigration is a panacea to economic prosperity. It is not. It burdens our public services, it undercuts the domestic workforce, it creates long term issues with ageing, and of course, it tears at the social fabric.”

Reflecting on the results, Nigel Farage, honorary president of Reform UK, told The Epoch Times, “A third force in politics is on the rise,” underscoring the emerging challenge to the traditional two-party dominance in British politics.

Following their electoral defeats, Conservative candidates Sam Bromiley and Helen Harrison, the latter being the partner of former MP Mr. Bone, exited the counts in Kingswood and Wellingborough without providing comments to the media.

Sunak Admits Challenges

In response to the electoral outcomes, Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged the inherent challenges of midterm elections, telling media today, “Midterm elections are always difficult for incumbent governments, and the circumstances of these elections were of course particularly challenging.”

Speaking on the Conservative Party’s path to a turnaround in fortunes, Mr. Sunak added, “Now, I think if you look at the results, very low turnout, and it shows that we’ve got work to do to show people that we are delivering on their priorities and that’s what I’m absolutely determined to do.”

Notable, from the Wellingborough campaign in particular, was the lack of Tory activity on the ground, with few activists and high profile MPs publicly out campaigning in support of the party’s candidates.

Marwan Riach, a quantitative political analyst at Electoral Calculus, told The Epoch Times, “These results are more a story of a governing party in electoral freefall than anything else.”

Mr. Riach also pointed to the rise of Reform UK as a significant development, saying that Reform UK’s result materialised the party, “as an electoral force for the first time since its founding.”

Labour’s national campaign coordinator, Pat McFadden, seized upon momentum, arguing for the necessity of a general election, “The message to Rishi Sunak is that every time he comes in contact with the electorate, he is rejected.”