[Oboogie]

LibDem on the BBC now appears to be conceding defeat, talking as if Labour have won. Result expected to be confirmed within the next 30 minutes.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

We did it again!

A phenomenal result.

[Boiler]

I wish I'd not looked at my phone when I made the inevitable trip to the loo (and got woken up by the wind and rain against the bedroom window) as such amazing results will probably stop me from getting back to sleep.

I'm sure they'll be dismissed as protest votes by the Tory faithful but as far as I'm concerned, the message to Sunak is clear - fuck off, you short-trousered cunt.

[davidjay]

I wish I'd not looked at my phone when I made the inevitable trip to the loo (and got woken up by the wind and rain against the bedroom window) as such amazing results will probably stop me from getting back to sleep.

I'm sure they'll be dismissed as protest votes by the Tory faithful but as far as I'm concerned, the message to Sunak is clear - fuck off, you short-trousered cunt.

Snap on every middle-aged, middle of the night count.

[Youngian]

Former Tory voters not willing to switch to Labour in Mids Beds still went out to increase the share of the vote of Reform and the Lib Dems.

[Crabcakes]

That result, if repeated at a GE, would give the Tories 20 seats and put them behind the SNP.

Yes please!

[Yug]

This is what the BBC are saying today

Labour has made history by winning a by-election in the Mid Bedfordshire parliamentary seat which has been held by the Tories since 1931.

It was triggered by the resignation of former Conservative cabinet minister and MP Nadine Dorries.

Labour's Alistair Strathern won the seat with a 1,192 majority, overturning Ms Dorries's 2019 majority of 24,664.

The win is the largest Conservative majority overturned by Labour at a by-election since 1945...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bed ... 147435.amp

What they forgot to mention is that this is the first time a Labour candidate has been elected by Mid Bedfordshire, ever.

Didn't the Corbyn crew say something about "the wrong sort of electorate?

Corbynites take note. It's not enough to be facing the Shittiest Government Ever™, you have to be facing them with a strong, united, Party, with a leader who looks professional and confident, someone who can appeal to a wide range of people - a Prime Minister in Waiting, if you like, not an incompetent cantankerous crusty old Trot who appeals to nobody outside of a narrow(minded) group of like-minded Trots.

[davidjay]

Yeah but the obvious truth is that Keef Kidstarver simply cannot win elections. Fact.

[Youngian]

Yebbut Labour won by taking votes off the Tories because they’re no different to the Tories. Jeremy would have won in 2017 if he wasn’t sabotaged by the Labour right blah blah

[Andy McDandy]

Greg Hands saying that nobody he's talked to wants Starmer as PM. I wish someone would pull him up on the massive loophole in this statement.

[Boiler]

Yebbut Labour won by taking votes off the Tories because they’re no different to the Tories. Jeremy would have won in 2017 if he wasn’t sabotaged by the Labour right blah blah

Oh Lord, exactly what I'm seeing elsewhere this last week.

From an osteopath in yer actual SW8, no less.

[Yug]

Mid Bedfordshire vote breakdown in full (from Central Beds Caahncil website)

[Youngian]

Is this very far off the reality of now former Tory voters?

[Spoonman]

I'll be waiting to hear later from Matt Goodwin, Owen Jones, Stats for lefties and the dime-a-dozen dunderheads of KGB tell us how the results of the Mid-Bedfordshire & Tamworth by elections are actually bad news for Kier Starmer.

[Crabcakes]

I'll be waiting to hear later from Matt Goodwin, Owen Jones, Stats for lefties and the dime-a-dozen dunderheads of KGB tell us how the results of the Mid-Bedfordshire & Tamworth by elections are actually bad news for Kier Starmer.

The lines du jour are as follows:

1. Labour won with only 33-ish% of the vote - this is a sign of how bad FPTP is
2. The Lib Dems took away Tory votes, so it’s their win really
3. It’s all anti-Tory because people hate them and no one actually *wants* Labour
4. People are only voting Labour because they’re indistinguishable from the Tories
5. There is no appetite for Kier Starmer as PM

You’ll note that at least 2 of these are mutually exclusive, yet I’ve seen a few accounts use them *in the same post*

[Youngian]

The Goodwins will home in on the far right vote being larger than Labour’s majority in Tamworth, Tories would have won by being tougher on immigration and waging culture war.
And that would be Owen Jones’s analysis if Labour was in power and trounced by the Tories in a by-election where leftist parties took 10 percent of the vote. Labour lost as it wasn’t socialist enough.

[Bones McCoy]

You'd need a heart of stone ... etc. etc.

Conservativehome's commetariat have all the answers.

https://conservativehome.com/2023/10/20 ... elections/

----



"The problem was, we weren't right wing enough".

[Arrowhead]

I'll be waiting to hear later from Matt Goodwin, Owen Jones, Stats for lefties and the dime-a-dozen dunderheads of KGB tell us how the results of the Mid-Bedfordshire & Tamworth by elections are actually bad news for Kier Starmer.

I've already seen one embittered Corbynite claim that, by winning these two by-elections in safe Tory seats, it simply confirms that Starmer is a Tory as well

[Boiler]

I've never really read comments on CH before

[Youngian]

You'd need a heart of stone ... etc. etc.

Conservativehome's commetariat have all the answers.

https://conservativehome.com/2023/10/20 ... elections/

----



"The problem was, we weren't right wing enough".

You tell em, Warren

Warren
49m
Just think how different the result might have been if the government was being led by actual Conservatives instead of a bunch of Neo-socialists.