Blackpool South by-election: Labour ousts Tories in Westminster seat

Labour has taken Blackpool South from the Conservatives as voters deserted the Tories in a resounding Westminster by-election victory.

Chris Webb secured a 26.3% swing in the marginal Lancashire seat, easily wiping out the Tories' 2019 general election majority of 3,690 to win by 7,607.

Conservative David Jones only beat Reform UK's Mark Butcher into second place by 117 votes.

The by-election was triggered by former Tory MP Scott Benton's resignation.

"The people of Blackpool have spoken for Britain," said Mr Webb. "They have had enough of this failed government, people no longer trust the Conservatives."

Throwing down the gauntlet to Rishi Sunak, he added: "Prime Minister, do the decent thing: admit you've failed and call a general election."

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer hailed his party's "seismic win".

"This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunak's Conservatives directly," he said, "and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.

"The swing towards the Labour Party in Blackpool South is truly historic and shows that we are firmly back in the service of working people."

Reform UK, meanwhile, hailed its best by-election result, with Mr Butcher posting on posting on Facebook, external: "Frustratingly we was only 100 votes away from beating the Tories."

He said he had been "humbled"  by taking part in the democratic process and spoke of how he had reached out to voters during his campaign.

He said: "I think people have been able to have a much more honest debate in the pubs and clubs than they would on the doorstep."

Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Cregan said his party had run a good campaign "with the resources we had".

Conservative sources told the BBC the result confirmed its "Vote Reform, get Labour" message.

Defeated candidate Mr Jones was asked by BBC Radio Lancashire if he was relieved to have avoided being beaten into third place by Reform UK.

"I don't think relief is the word," he said.

"We wanted to win this by-election. We put a campaign together and hoped that the people of Blackpool South would rally around that. They didn't."

The Tories suspended Mr Benton last year after he told journalists from The Times, posing as gambling industry investors, that he could lobby ministers.

A subsequent investigation concluded Mr Benton had caused "significant damage" to Parliament's reputation and he announced his resignation as an MP in March.

Britain's newest MP paid tribute to his wife Portia, who recently gave birth to their son Cillian in February.

Mr Webb becomes only the second Labour MP to represent Blackpool South after Gordon Marsden, who held the seat from 1997 until the December 2019 general election and was present at the count.

BBC political editor Chris Mason said: "What is striking about it is not so much Labour's victory but the scale of it - 26% is a whopping swing."

Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, observed that it was the third largest swing from Conservative to Labour in post-war by-election history.

He also noted that the Tories were not helped by Reform UK - with 16.9% of the vote - producing its best ever by-election performance.

While it was a very good result for Reform he noted that it was still well short of what UKIP regularly achieved in the 2010-15 parliament.

This is the sixth by-election Labour has won with a swing of more than 20% in this parliament and its second 25%+ swing in this general election year.