Chesham & Amersham

[macliam]

An old colleague said to me recently that if Boris Johnson led a gang of skinheads down Whitehall and decapitated Keir Starmer on the steps of Parliament, some people would still say that Starmer deserved it and that Boris had to do it due to the actions of the last Labour government. They'd then say it proved Starmer was too weak and that Labour are too disorganized to to be a valid opposition.......

[Richard Frost]

Yes, it apparently is:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bexle ... stituency)

Unsurprising result, Tory hold

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59505204 vastly reduced majority on an extremely low turnout. The lowest since 2018

Labour came second with a 10% swing
Perhaps more concerning Reform came 3rd
with Green party and Liberal Democrats losing their deposits

Lib Dems and possibly Greens are short of money so choosing which seats to target in the bye elections. This was always going to be how much the Tory vote weighed, no need to actually count the votes election.

But a low turnout (Tory voters will turn out when others cannot be bothered as it is only a by election etc) and still a 10% swing to Labour. Reform aka Brexit Party was not that much of a surprise But still only 6.6% at a time when you can vote for them and then vote Tory at the General Election when every MP could be important.

Labour is likely to be very short of money soon following this announcement by UNITE

Labour’s biggest union donor is set to cut funding for the party as its boss said more needed to be done for workers.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham told The Guardian that Unite would still pay £1 million in affiliation fees to Labour.

But Ms Graham, who took over from Len McCluskey in August, said in an interview with the newspaper that “there’s a lot of other money that we use from our political fund where, actually, I’m not sure we’re getting the best value for it”.

When she took on the role Ms Graham promised to “completely refocus” the union, and at the time said: “I will be a general secretary for the workers, for my members.”

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/polit ... ty-303574/