Tamworth by election result: Labour beats Conservatives - taking seat off the Tories that they held since 2010

The Labour party hailed victory in Tamworth’s by-election taking the seat off the Conservatives which they have held onto since 2010. Labour’s candidate, Sarah Edwards, has won the seat in the town that previously had a huge Tory majority.

Edwards received 11,719 votes ahead of Andrew Cooper, the Tory candidate, who received 10,403 – a majority of 1,316 for Labour. It was a 23.89% swing to Keir Starmer’s party. Voter turnout was low at 35.87%, little more than half the 2019 figure.

Edwards said the promises she has made to the people of Tamworth she “intends to keep” and she will “challenge the government to get a better deal for Tamworth”. In her victory speech, Edwards said the voters of Tamworth had “sent a clear message to Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives that they have had enough of this failed government, which has crashed the economy and destroyed our public services. The people of Tamworth have made it clear. It’s time for change.” Starmer said the result in Tamworth is “phenomenal” and “shows Labour is back in the service of working people and redrawing the political map.”

The by-election was called after Tamworth’s former Tory MP Chris Pincher resigned last month after he drunkenly groped two men last year. Pincher had a large majority of 19,634, winning 66% of the vote in Tamworth in the 2019 general election. Labour’s leader Keir Starmer previously said that the opposition party winning Tamworth’s by-election would be a “tough ask”.

However, Starmer’s party were emboldened by the fact that Labour held the Tamworth seat for 13 years after it was created at the 1997 general election. Edwards winning the seat is a symbolic sign for the party’s national ambitions ahead of the general election expected next year - and a blow for Sunak’s Conservative party.

Star Sports told NationalWorld on Wednesday (18 October), a day before the by-election, that Labour were the “strong favourites”. The firm had Labour as the 1/4 favourites, the Conservatives 5/2, and the Liberal Democrats 100/1.

NationalWorld spoke to residents in Tamworth ahead of the by-election on Monday (16 October) with many saying that they are fed up with politicians and do not trust them. They said they want to see their next MP in the community more, talking to ordinary people and to be more “honest”.  Claire Durham, 75, said she would like to see more “honesty and clarity” and will be voting for the Labour candidate, Sarah Edwards, because she “so wants a change of government”.

It was clear that locals were not impressed with Pincher and would like to see change in their town. Labour winning the by-election has now ended the Conservative’s hold of Tamworth for the past 13 years and the opposition party’s hold is now beginning.