KETTERING, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 16: (L-R) Labour Party candidate Gen Kitchen shakes hands with Conservative Party candidate Helen Harrison after being declared the winner in the Wellingborough by-election at the count centre in Kettering Leisure Village on February 16, 2024 in Kettering, England. The Wellingborough by-election takes place after a recall petition that removed the incumbent Conservative MP Peter Bone. Bone broke the MPs' code of conduct on four counts of bullying and one of sexual misconduct. On the ballot paper is Conservative Helen Harrison, partner of Peter Bone, Labour Gen Kitchen, Ana Savage Gun for Liberal Democrats and Ben Habib for the Reform Party among others. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)Labour has won a previously-safe Tory seat in a major boost for Keir Starmer following a torrid week.
The party’s candidate, Gen Kitchen, overturned a Conservative majority of 13,737 to become the new MP for Wellingborough.
Kitchen secured 13,844 votes to Tory Helen Harrison’s 7,408, a huge 28.5% swing to the opposition party.
It represented a double by-election victory for Labour after the party overturned a majority of 11,220 to emerge triumphant in Kingswood.
Labour’s Damien Egan received 11,176 votes, giving him a majority of 2,501 over Tory candidate Sam Bromiley – a 16.4% swing from Conservative to Labour.
The Wellingborough seat became vacant after Peter Bone - who had been the constituency’s Tory MP since 2005 - was effectively sacked by local voters in December.
He lost the Conservative whip last October after he was found to have bullied and sexually harassed a member of his staff.
After being suspended from the Commons for six weeks, enough voters in his seat supported a petition calling for his removal as their MP.
The result is a welcome fillip for Starmer after one of his worst weeks since becoming Labour leader in 2020.
He was accused of flip-flopping after finally ditching the party’s commitment to spend £28 billion a year on green energy projects following weeks of internal wrangling.
Starmer was also criticised for the time it took for Labour to withdraw support for Azhar Ali, the party’s candidate in the upcoming Rochdale by-election, over anti-Israel comments he made at a meeting.
Starmer said: “These are fantastic results in Kingswood and Wellingborough that show people want change and are ready to put their faith in a changed Labour Party to deliver it.
“By winning in these Tory strongholds, we can confidently say that Labour is back in the service of working people and we will work tirelessly to deliver for them.
“The Tories have failed. Rishi’s recession proves that. That’s why we’ve seen so many former Conservative voters switching directly to this changed Labour Party.
“Those who gave us their trust in Kingswood and Wellingborough, and those considering doing so, can be safe in the knowledge that we will spend every day working to get Britain’s future back.”
