Bad Night for Labour and Conservatives

Three by election results last night. Two in the traditional Labour heartland that returned Nye Bevan and Michael Foot but held by independents, one in the old Tory stomping ground of Harold MacMillan.

In the end Labour failed to regain either the Westminster or Cardiff seat of Blaenau Gwent from the Independents standing on the lagacy of Peter Law. In Bromley and Chislehurst they sank to fourth behind UKIP.

As for David Cameron he can also not be sitting to comfortable today he say a 5 figure reduced to 641 after a recount in what was the 17th safest Conservative seat only 13 months ago.

So far in this Parliament we have had two Westminster by-elections in Labour seats, one in a Lib Dem seat, one in a Tory seat and one in an Independent but formerly strong Labour seat. The results make interesting reading only in Lib Dem Cheadle has the holding party increased their majority and share of the vote. Labour lost vote share and were worried of losing Livingston, which they did in Dunfermline and West Fife and failed to win back Blaenau Gwent. The Tories failed to make any impression in any of these since a slight increase in their vote share at Cheadle.

In fact considering the spread of these constituencies. Three in traditional Labour heartlands and the Tories claiming two of them as their birthright the number of votes won make very interesting reading. Labour have won 36,633 votes to the Tories 33,265 however the Liberal Democrats have taken 48,811 votes in these five by elections. So it just begs the rhetorical question who do the electorate see as the real opposition to Labour.