Stoke and Copeland by-elections: Crunch votes cast doubt on Jeremy Corbyn’s future
VOTERS went to the polls today in two crucial by-elections that could determine Jeremy Corbyn’s future as Labour’s leader.
With senior Labour figures questioning how long Mr Corbyn could hold on as leader, he will try to regain the initiative by brandishing his pro-EU credentials.
Despite Labour facing annihilation in dozens of pro-Leave seats across the UK, Mr Corbyn will attack Theresa May’s attempts to deliver Brexit as “false patriotism” and rebrand his party as “the voice of progressive Europe and European working people.”
His intervention came after voters elected new MPs in two gruelling by-elections in Stoke Central, which has been held by Labour since 1950, and Copeland.
Voters in Stoke Central and Copeland braved strong winds and rain lashing the country today to decide on who should replace two former moderate Labour MPs who quit because they believe their party cannot win with Mr Corbyn in charge.
Stoke’s Tristram Hunt, once considered a future leader, left to become director of the V&A Museum in London, while Copeland’s Jamie Reed went to work for the nuclear industry in his former constituency.
The harsh weather conditions meant that turnout was expected to be low with both results expected to be “on a knife edge” in what were previously two safe Labour seats.
Whatever happens we have given Labour a tough battle in their own heartland
And Labour sources have said that the by-elections “have left question marks” over how long Mr Corbyn can carry on as leader after fighting two tough battles to keep hold of seats in heartland territories.
In Stoke Ukip leader Paul Nuttall was still optimistic as polls closed tonight.
A senior source said that voters who had pledged to back Ukip had said they would brave the fierce weather to vote.
Ukip MEP brands Labour as desperate ahead of by-election
He said: “Whatever happens we have given Labour a tough battle in their own heartland and it has been on a knife edge.”
But Mr Nuttall’s hopes of easily winning the seat against a Labour candidate Gareth Snell, who described Brexit as “sh**” in a constituency which voted almost 70 per cent for Leave, have been hit by what he describes as a “smear campaign” against him.
Mr Nuttall has been forced to spend much of his time denying accusations that he lied about being at the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 which led to the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.
Meanwhile the Tories handed out free umbrellas to voters to help brave the weather and were optimistic about winning Copeland as polls closed.
A win would be the first time since 1982 when a governing party took a seat off the main Opposition party in a by-election.
It would be the first time since 1878 when the governing party had won in a contest with the main Opposition party outside a war and without a defection to another party.
Labour was also trying to hold off another unwanted record of being the first Opposition party to lose two by-elections on the same day since 1854.
The party focussed on claims that the NHS is under threat while the Tories highlighted Mr Corbyn’s opposition to nuclear energy in a Copeland where the industry is the main employer.
Meanwhile, in Stoke Ukip focussed on immigration and the need to ensure that Brexit is delivered fully by the Government.