Labour takes back ‘red wall’ seat Blackpool South in ‘seismic’ win | Byelections

Labour has regained the seat of Blackpool South in Thursday’s parliamentary byelection, in a fresh blow to Rishi Sunak’s leadership. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, called it a “seismic win”.

The local and firm favourite Chris Webb won with 10,825 votes, followed by David Jones, the Conservative candidate, with a distant 3,218 votes, who finished narrowly ahead of the Reform candidate, Mark Butcher, on 3,101 votes.

“Prime minister, do the decent thing, admit you’ve failed and call an election,” said Webb in his victory speech. “People are fed up because nothing seems to work any more. Hard up because of the Conservative cost-of-living crisis. But instead of giving up they got up and voted for change with Labour.”

The “red wall” constituency had been held by the Tories since 2019. Before then it had been considered a safe Labour seat since 1997 and was held by Gordon Marsden, whom Webb had previously worked for as an adviser.

“This seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today,” said Starmer. “This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives directly, 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.

“Our new Labour MP Chris Webb has shown that after years of neglect with the Tories, there is a better alternative. The message to Rishi Sunak is clear. It’s time for change, it’s time for a general election.”

For Sunak’s party, the loss of Blackpool South was not unexpected but may be taken as an indication of how voters in poorer constituencies are likely to vote in the general election expected later this year.

The constituency includes some of the UK’s most deprived wards, where many would argue the government has not delivered on its promises of levelling up.

The byelection was triggered after Scott Benton stood down in March over a lobbying scandal.

It was discovered in April 2023 he had offered to table parliamentary questions, leak documents and lobby ministers on behalf of gambling companies in return for “thousands of pounds per month”.

He sat as an independent MP after being suspended from the Conservative party, and was later suspended from the House of Commons.

Conservative candidate Jones faced competition from Reform’s Butcher, a local businessman who runs a soup kitchen being probed by the Charity Commission over claims it was used to promote his campaign.

While Reform did not win in Blackpool South, it ran a strong campaign in which Butcher distanced himself from the wider party, insisting he was “not a politician” and taking aim at the Tories and Labour, which all played well in hustings.

Reform recently overtook the Lib Dems nationally to take third place in the polls and has led an ambitious local election campaign, fielding 300-400 candidates for councils across England. Meanwhile, those same polls show support for Labour has stayed level since dropping back after peaking during the short-lived Liz Truss prime ministership in 2022.

While this win will no doubt buoy the Labour camp, it comes shortly after research showed Keir Starmer’s party may miss out on key seats as previously loyal progressive voters turn away from Labour.

Frustration from voters on issues such as Gaza and the climate crisis has meant Labour has lost ground in 50 key seats, particularly in younger urban areas which are very different to Blackpool South.