By election results 2024 live: Labour win Wellingborough and Kingswood in double blow for Rishi Sunak
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Labour has won by-elections in Wellingborough and Kingswood to land a double blow on Rishi Sunak.
Keir Starmer said the results showed "people are ready to put their trust in a Labour government". Firs to declare was Kingswood, with Damien Egan, the former Mayor of Lewisham, becoming the new MP with a swing of over 16%. That was later bettered in Wellingborough, as 28-year-old Gen Kitchen overturned a majority of more than 18,000. This means that the government has clocked up more by-election losses in a single parliament than any administration since the 1960s, and, in particular, the impact of Reform, is likely to put more pressure on Sunak.
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And Starmer's take...
Sir Keir Starmer said Labour are “credible contenders” for the 2024 general election, but “that is all we are.”
“I’m very proud of that result, I’m proud of the work I’ve done as leader,” the Labour leader told BBC Breakfast.
“The progress we’ve now made from the worst results since 1935 to being now credible contenders, and that is all we are, for the 2024 election – I have to say, when I took over as leader most people shook my hand and said: ‘Good luck Keir,’ and in the next breath they said: ‘You will never do this in one five-year parliamentary term.’
“We’re trying to do, if you like, what Kinnock, what Smith and Blair did, over 13 or 14 years, in four short years.”
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