The Labor Party he won the by-election for a seat in the British House of Commons (the elective branch of Parliament, the other being the House of Lords): the governing Conservative party lost by a very large margin, the third largest ever recorded in a constituency since the Second World War. Chris Webb was elected in the Blackpool South constituency with 58.9 per cent of the vote, compared to 17.5 per cent for the Conservatives. The third party, Reform UK, heir to the Brexit Party and with radical right-wing positions, took 16.9 percent, a result close to that of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s party. It is the fifth by-election in the last 18 months that the Labor Party has won by more than 20 percentage points.
Thursday also voted for 2,600 seats in 107 city councils in England, for 10 mayors and for 37 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), i.e. public safety supervisors linked to police districts, in England and Wales. The complete and definitive results they will only arrive on the weekendbut in the third of the municipalities that closed the count, the Labor Party won almost everywhere, with disappointing results for the Conservatives and some good local results for the Green Party.
The only significant victory for the Conservatives was the re-election of the mayor of the Tees Valley area (which includes Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees): Ben Houchen, who could count on consolidated personal popularity, had campaigned almost as an “independent”.
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