Labour Wins Back Key Seat as Sunak Suffers Big Election Losses
- Blackpool South by-election loss will heap pressure on premier
- Conservatives bracing for more defeats in local, mayoral votes
This article is for subscribers only.
Labour won back a bellwether parliamentary seat from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives in northwest England, as early local election results suggested the UK’s main opposition party is gathering pace in its efforts to return to power.
Labour’s Chris Webb won 58.9% of ballots cast, in an election for the “red wall” seat in Blackpool triggered after the Tory MP resigned in scandal. The result exposed deeper problems for the Tories as they barely held onto second place, securing just 117 more votes than the populist Reform UK party founded by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage.