By election results 2024 live: Labour win Wellingborough and Kingswood in double blow for Rishi Sunak

Welcome to NationalWorld's live blog. Voters are heading to the polls in Wellingborough and Kingswood today, with Labour favoured to dent Rishi Sunak's majority further.

Turnout is expected to be quite low, especially in Kingswood - which will no longer exist as a constituency at the next general election. I'll be in Northamptonshire later and we'll be getting regular updates from the south west as well. Get in touch by emailing [email protected].

The by-election was called in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, after Tory MP Peter Bone had the whip stripped after Parliament’s Independent Expert Panel (IEP) found he “committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct” against a member of his staff in 2012 and 2013.

Bone denied the allegations saying the claims were "false and untrue" and “without foundation”, however MPs voted to suspend him from the Commons for six weeks and a recall petition has led to the by-election.

You can read more about that here.

A unexpected by-election was called in Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, when former Tory minister Chris Skidmore resigned in protest against the government plans to increase the number of oil and gas licences. He said: "As the former energy minister who signed the UK’s net zero commitment by 2050 into law, I cannot vote for a Bill that clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas."

He added: "To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained. I am therefore resigning my party whip and instead intend to be free from any party-political allegiance."

Slightly bizarrely, the constituency of Kingswood will not exist at the next election due to boundaries being withdrawn, with the majority of the seat going into North East Bristol.

Good evening everyone, I've had my nap, I'm rested and ready for a long night of politics. Coffee all the way from here until ... 5am potentially (hopefully not).

Labour is really pushing today's news that the UK has gone into recession (which is two quarters where the economy contracts). This is a big blow to Rishi Sunak's pitch of economic competence. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves held a press conference today about this, saying: "The confirmation of recession exposes a government and a Prime Minister completely out of touch with the realities on the ground.

"A government that for too long has looked on economic failure with complacency, content to be managers of decline. Rishi Sunak claims that he has a plan, but the plan is not working."

It's probably a bit early for this news to filter through to voters, however the economy is still the number one issue across the country - and that has been helping Labour recently.

The Labour Party is odds on to win in Wellingborough, with 28-year-old Gen Kitchen hoping to be returned to Westminster. However, I've been told canvassers found plenty of Peter Bone supporters on the door step - they'll be voting for his girlfriend, Helen Harrison, the Tories' candidate.

Hopefully we'll have a laser show like the one from the Ipswich by-election in 2001. Hat tip to the Spectator's James Heale who dug this out last summer.

Richard Tice's anti-immigration party, Reform UK, is currently the Tories' bogeyman come election time. It recently hit double digits in some opinion polls, and took enough votes off the Tories in the ultra-rural Mid Bedfordshire seat last year to help Labour win. Ultra-Brexiteer Ben Habib is the party's candidate in Wellingborough, where it is hoping to get it's best performance yet.

Today he went on rant about the town's barber shops, I gather there are a few. He told Politico's excellent Playbook newsletter: "There are about eight [between my hotel and the gym], and many, many more in the constituency, which begs the question as to what these barber shops are all doing? There certainly aren’t enough people [for them] to be providing genuine hair-cutting services.”

Maybe have a Red Bull chaser with your coffee? Kingswood could be any time between 2am and (please no) 5am, while Wellingborough is expected around 4am. Maybe a double Red Bull chaser is needed (other energy drinks are available).

For Labour to win in Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, it will need a swing of just over 11%. Outgoing MP Chris Skidmore won a majority of 11,220 in 2019, and the last time this seat voted red Tony Blair was the Prime Minister.

In Wellingborough, a swing of 18% is needed - with Peter Bone having a majority of 18,540. Labour overturned bigger majority in Selby and Ainsty and Mid Beds, but those by-elections weren't after Keir Starmer's week from hell.