Second best realistic result imo from Gorton and Denton. Labour holding on slightly better so Reform was third would've been nice.
Reform actively doing badly given their awful candidate would be even better but not likely given it's a by-election and the government's managed to piss off both its natural enemies and its natural allies.
But hopefully some wind out of Reform's sails nevertheless.
Well done to the Greens, so far as I'm aware this is their first by-election win of this nature.
The campaign generally looked pretty Lib Demmy (down to releasing data showing you just behind your scariest opponent) so I feel vindicated in sometimes lumping the two parties together when it comes to strategies.
The Modi poster wasn't great though. Less of that please.
Also I feel sorry for the Lib Dem candidate. This is old now but there was a by-election in a predecessor seat in 2017, she was the candidate then. And she was strong.
Without having been on the campaign (and high up) I can never confirm this but reportedly she was leading. Then GE2017 was called, the dynamics changed and it all unwound.
Must suck to come dead last in a seat where, a few butterflies flying differently, you could have been sitting MP.
Now the big picture. 🤷♂️
If Starmer was smart this'd be a wake-up call that he's losing his core and he could wake up after the GE to the Labour equivalent of the Tories losing Oxfordshire and most of Surrey.
So the Blue Labour, anti-immigration stuff dies. And we get PR.
But if Starmer was smart he'd have probably never tried a "chase the far right" strategy given outside Denmark (even that's arguable) it's never worked for SocDem parties.
@DuncanMSussexPol ...beginning to suspect so-called elected leaders are more like puppets.
we can imagine that upon gaining office, they are invited to meet the low profile "real leaders" who then explain to them how it works and if they dont comply they are toast
not so unlikely #conspiracy
DuncanMSussexPol
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