The Labour Party has won the Wellingborough by-election, overturning a Tory majority of 18,540.
The victory for the opposition means the Tories have clocked up more by-election defeats in a single parliament than any Tory government since the Second World War.
Here are the results in full:
- Gen Kitchen, Labour – 13,844
- Helen Harrison, Conservative – 7,408
- Ana Gunn, Liberal Democrats – 1,422
- Ben Habib, Reform UK – 3,919
- William Morris, Green – 1,020
Tory candidate Ms Harrison is the partner of ousted MP Peter Bone, who had represented the Northamptonshire constituency since 2005.
He was removed from his seat last December after an inquiry found he had subjected a staff member to bullying and sexual misconduct (allegations he denies), leading to him being suspended from the Commons for six weeks and facing a recall petition, which he subsequently lost.
The by-election was seen as a two-horse race between the Tories and Labour, which previously held the seat in 1997 and 2001.
Labour needed a swing of 17.9 percentage points to overturn the Conservatives’ large majority – in other words, the equivalent of a net change of 18 in every 100 people who voted Tory in 2019 switching sides.
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