This is a massive victory for Kim Leadbeater - a genuinely phenomenal campaigner liked across the constituency - and a local campaign which mobilised huge numbers.
It's also a rout for the Tory-voting Nigel Farage associate George Galloway, who no leftwinger should ever support.
It's also a rout for the Tory-voting Nigel Farage associate George Galloway, who no leftwinger should ever support.
https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1410722366271877120
The Batley and Spen result provides breathing space for the Labour leadership, and the test is whether they take that and turn it all around - because as things stand, Labour remains on course for an electoral catastrophe significantly worse than the disaster of 2019.
Oppositions do better in by elections than general elections - that's a basic rule of politics. The genuine relief felt across Labour should not eclipse a basic fact - badly losing one seat won in 2019 and then scraping another means the party is *currently* heading for disaster.
If the response of Keir Starmer's leadership and supporters is to respond to the lowest result Labour has ever won in Batley & Spen with more factional warfare and more contempt towards many of those who voted Labour in 2019, then a possible electoral disaster is a certainty.
Keir Starmer won the Labour leadership with this mandate:
1) Radical domestic policies
2) Party unity
3) Electability
That's the mandate he should return to, and if he did, he'd find genuine goodwill. If he doesn't, his leadership will lurch from crisis to crisis.
1) Radical domestic policies
2) Party unity
3) Electability
That's the mandate he should return to, and if he did, he'd find genuine goodwill. If he doesn't, his leadership will lurch from crisis to crisis.
150,000 are dead, the Tory handling of COVID-19 is one of the worst on earth, the government is mired in scandal.
Other Western governments are struggling in the polls, and the Lib Dems thrived in Chesham and Amersham. Labour can, and should be doing, far, far, far better.
Other Western governments are struggling in the polls, and the Lib Dems thrived in Chesham and Amersham. Labour can, and should be doing, far, far, far better.
For those interpreting this result as a massive victory for their own brand of politics. Imagine it was a faction not of your liking currently running the Labour party, badly losing one defensive by election, then scraping another. What would your honest analysis be?
For those pretending the left secretly enjoys living under the horror of Tory rule: we just want the Tories out and a progressive Labour government in its place. We desperately fear this isn't going to happen as things stand. There is nothing more to it than that.
In conclusion, the Labour leadership should treat this as a massive kick up the backside - not a glorious triumphant vindication - and offer a genuinely inspiring vision which unites the party and which is currently just not there. Disaster awaits otherwise - it's up to them.
Finally, George Galloway promised me that he'd eat his hat if Labour didn't come third.
So he should keep to his promise. Come on, @georgegalloway, do it on camera by the end of the day. You can have it with ketchup, that's still within the rules.
So he should keep to his promise. Come on, @georgegalloway, do it on camera by the end of the day. You can have it with ketchup, that's still within the rules.
Very finally, I backed Labour in this election as I've always done in every single election without exception in my adult life, local or national, unlike some of the people currently screaming at me in my mentions. 
Oh: I'll keep interviewing people across the political spectrum, from left to right, as I've always done, all with exactly the same style. Those interviews have always been a success, and until now, no one pretends I'm a secret supporter of my interviewee
https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1408336250092859393
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