U.K. Labour Party loses safe seat to Tories

[Englishboy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39064149

The Conservatives have won the Copeland by-election, beating Labour in an area it represented for more than 80 years.

Trudy Harrison won with 13,748 votes to Labour's Gillian Troughton's 11,601.

Mrs Harrison hailed the victory - the first by-election gain by a governing party since 1982 - as "a truly historic event".

Labour's Gareth Snell held Stoke-on-Trent Central with 7,853 votes, seeing off a challenge from UKIP leader Paul Nuttall who got 5,233.

 

[Angela Channing]

The majority was only 2000 in the 2015 general election so I would consider Copeland to be a marginal seat rather than a safe Labour seat. Given the circumstances of the Sellafield nuclear power plant being in Copeland and how the Tories misrepresented Labour's policy on nuclear energy, it was always going to be difficult for Labour to defend such a small majority. I don't think they will be devastated that they lost, just disappointed.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Jeremy Corbyn is a HUGE vote loser
He has to go or Labour will die a slow death in England
Its already happened in Scotland, 1 seat only

 

[Angela Channing]

Jeremy Corbyn is a HUGE vote loser
He has to go or Labour will die a slow death in England
Its already happened in Scotland, 1 seat only

I agree that the Corbyn experiment has failed and the Labour Party would be more successful with another leader but Scotland was lost to Labour before Corbyn was elected leader so it's more than just him.

Before Corbyn was leader, London had a Tory mayor and now it has a Labour one, Bristol had a right wing mayor and now it has a Labour one. Jeremy Corbyn appeals to many voters and has had many credible election victories but I feel his support is not broad enough to win widely across the United Kingdom.