Labour are celebrating after claiming an “historic” by-election victory.
Sarah Edwards took the Tamworth parliamentary seat – which includes areas such as Fazeley, Stonnall and Shenstone – after collecting 11,719 votes.
The result, which saw Andy Cooper finish second for the Conservatives with 10,403 votes, meant a 23.9% swing on what had previously been considered a safe Tory seat.
Sarah said:
“It’s the honour of a lifetime to have been chosen as Tamworth’s MP. Voters have put their trust in me and a changed Labour Party and I won’t let them down.
“For months, people here have been telling me that they’re worse off under the Tories. We ran a positive campaign here in Tamworth, focused on the issues that matter to people like tackling the cost of living, bringing down NHS waiting lists and tackling anti social behavior.
“Voters have chosen a positive Labour vision, a fresh start and Keir Starmer’s vision for a mission-driven government over more chaos with the Conservatives.
“The Conservatives have taken this place for granted for too long, voters have been let down by Rishi Sunak and his party.
“It’s working people who have had to pay the price for their mismanagement of this country, as Tamworth’s MP I’ll be doing everything I can to protect my constituents from these out-of-touch Tories.”
Sarah Edwards
The by-election was called following the resignation of Christopher Pincher after being suspended for groping two men in a club.
The vote had been seen as a key battleground with senior figures from across the political spectrum joining their respective candidates on the campaign trail.
The results saw Labour’s share of the vote grew from 23.7% in 2019 to 45.8% this time around.
Stephanie Peacock, Labour’s political lead for the by-election, said:
“This is a historic victory for the Labour Party.
“We spoke to thousands of residents, we offered them a positive plan for Tamworth to fix the 13 years of Tory decline and as you’ve seen, they voted overwhelmingly for that Labour vision.
“Voters have clearly put their faith in Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, and that message came back to us from the voters. They’ve seen what Keir and the Labour Party have to offer and they’ve put their trust in Labour and in Sarah Edwards.
“Sarah will be an exceptional MP for Tamworth. She’s already been delivering for working people in this town for many years and now she’s going to do it for even more.
“I’m looking forward to welcoming her into Parliament next week where the hard work really starts.”
Stephanie Peacock
Lichfield next?!
Watch out Fabricant. You’re ‘safe’ seat is next.
Apologies for the typo / spelling mistake. Obviously I meant ‘Your safe seat’. Not ‘You’re’. That’s what happens when you don’t concentrate on the matter in hand. You make mistakes. Just like the Tories are making so many mistakes.
Wonderful news. Tamworth deserves a better representative – at last
Another 2 bite the dust. Look out MF.
Very low turnout and the right-wing vote split by Reform UK in particular. Tories will be back at the next General Election.
At long last people have taken their heads out of the sand that they have seemingly had buried in it for far too long now and started to live in the real world, not just in Tamworth but also in Mid Beds.
A far cry from Labour’s ‘nadir’ in 2019 and still even this time two years ago (October 2021) many would probably have said ‘nah, never a cat in hell’s chance of such a turnaround for Labour’!
Fabricant eat your heart out!!
Not sure about that Nick, they remind me of the John Major government taken out by Tony Blair. The only hope they have is Starmer is no Blair (From a life time Tory)
Alex Farrell spotted with the tory candidate running off, embarrassing state of the local Tories
@Nick, what on earth would anyone vote Tory for now that ‘Brexits done’, although I’m not sure that has been the roaring success we were promised. Time for change!
It’s not a “historic” win, it’s a historic collapse by the Tories
Agree wholeheartedly BigStephenS.
The total farce of the last GE at the end of 2019 was totally about ‘getting Brexit done’ and not really about many of the longstanding issues this country has faced for far too long now.
It did seem that many in this country were simply beyond caring about pretty much everything at that time, nor could foresee another major global crisis around the corner literally just weeks later, which was of course Covid, though to be fair Corbyn and Co would have no doubt got it in the neck over it all just the same had they won said election.
I think the current Tory govt are becoming increasingly tired and are indeed ‘stuck in a rut’ of late. Very similar to Major and Co after 1992.
Nothing from Mr Fabricant about the drubbing
A big swing, 37% turnout the majority of those voting still did not vote Labour (fact)
So love, I hope you have a short-term rental on your temporary flat.
All we want in the area is a public union activist wanting more of our money to pay the bloated civil service.
“First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin”
It is time people realised that the nature of party politics has changed. The Tories (the party of low taxes) now have the highest taxes in history. They also preside over the highest national debt but still felt it prudent to spend billions on a grandiose rail line. Our much respected NHS is on its knees and will struggle to survive in the way we were used to. All this is largely down to mismanagement of the economy. Throughout their period in office the country has been in recession. We have all (especially the poor) suffered the consequences.
It should not be thought that the champions of the former working class will perform any better. They usually try to spend their way out of problems….invariably with borrowed money and have less resistance to the pressure on inflationary wage increases.
I have difficulty in seeing the way forward for our political management. We do need change but we shouldn’t be starting from here.