Results from the Peterborough by-election (special election) in the United Kingdom have revealed the Labour Party have emerged victorious with 30.9 per cent of the vote.
The Brexit Party finished second with 28.9 per cent.
The election, called after the prosecution of Labour Member of Parliament Fiona Onasanya, took on a special place in British politics.
Coming hot on the heels of the whopping Brexit Party victory at the European elections, the vote in the Cambridgeshire constituency was perceived as hugely important moment for Nigel Farage and his 8-week-old party.
The following results are now known, following the counting of ballots at stations across the 70,000+ voter district:
Peterborough result:
LAB: 30.9% (-17.2)
BREX: 28.9% (+28.9)
CON: 21.4% (-25.5)
LDEM: 12.3% (+8.9)
GRN: 3.1% (+1.3)
UKIP: 1.2% (+1.2) pic.twitter.com/ser9YFfk4S— Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 7, 2019
The result will be a major disappointment for Farage and his new party and will place a dampener on celebrations that started earlier in the night due to a new poll which showed the Brexit Party six points ahead of Labour and the Conservative Party in a general election.
Farage and his team will now go back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong, including but not limited to the Brexit Party’s lack of data, local activists, and use of election technology.
The Brexit Party simply didn’t take enough votes from either Labour or the Conservatives.
Labour were down 17 per cent on their last result in the area. The Tories were down 25.5 per cent.
Fifteen candidates in total stood in the by-election, which Onasanya only won by a margin of 607 votes at the last election.
Previously, the Member of Parliament was Conservative Stewart Jackson.
The Conservative Party – wildly unpopular due to its leader, its inability to deliver Brexit, and its increasingly leftward drift – finished 3rd in the poll.
The result means Lisa Forbes goes to Westminster to sit on behalf of the Labour Party.
More to follow…
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