Labour Wins U.K. Special Election in Blow to Cameron

The opposition Labour Party won a special election in a northwest English parliamentary district, holding the seat in a blow to Prime Minister David Cameron, whose Conservative Party lost support in the area.

The Labour candidate, Debbie Abrahams, won the vote in Oldham East and Saddleworth, the first electoral test since Cameron took power in May, with 42.1 percent of the vote. Elwyn Watkins, the candidate for Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats, was second with 32 percent. Kashif Ali of Cameron’s Conservatives took third place, with his share of the vote down by more than half since the May general election.