Labour won the Feltham and Heston by-election last night. Inevitably, new MP Seema Malhotra dedicated her victory, and the fact that she notched up an 8.56% swing from the Conservatives, to Ed Miliband, saying:
"This result is a great victory for Labour which shows the progress we are making under Ed Miliband's leadership, a vote of confidence in the way Labour is changing, listening hard, winning back the trust of the people we seek to serve."
She went on to declare that this result was also a message for the prime minister:
"But this is also a wake-up call for David Cameron. This result shows how this Tory led government is totally out of touch."
So far, so predictable. Feltham and Heston was a comfortable Labour seat under Malhotra's predecessor Alan Keen, and although she's done well to increase Labour's majority from 4,658 to 6,203.
The interesting aspect of last night was the Lib Dems' struggle to beat UKIP to third place. David Cameron's recent actions over Europe, widely perceived to be a strengthing of his party's stance against greater integration with the EU, seem to have affected a possible increase in UKIP's support. This in turn benefited the Lib Dems, who managed to hold on to third place, thus avoiding the ignomy of being a party of government beaten into fourth place. It was a close-run thing, though - the Lib Dems polled 1,364 votes, while UKIP received 1,276 votes. Just 88 votes stood between Nick Clegg and some very embarrassing questions.
But with a turnout of just 28.7%, the lowest in a by-election for 11 years, means that no one will be rushing to extrapolate any national significance from the vote. Or at least, that's what the Lib Dems will be hoping.
Comments
swatantra / December 16 2011 11:26am
Good Lab & Coop candidate. But also some clear messages for EdM.
Lib Dems are toast and will soon be hiring 2 taxi cabs to get around.