Labour claims by-election win as Lib Dems fight off Ukip scare

Friday, 16 December 2011 9:58 AM

By Ian Dunt Follow @IanDunt

Labour has won a by-election in Feltham and Heston with a solid eight per cent swing from the Tories.

The poll, sparked by the death of Labour MP Alan Keen last month, saw the Liberal Democrats hang on to third place by their fingernails, fighting off the United Kingdom Independence party (Ukip) by just 88 votes.

"By-elections are not general elections but they do offer a verdict," Ed Miliband said.

"This is not just a swing from the Tories to Labour. It is a swing away from Tory ideas to Labour ideas." 

Winning candidate Seema Malhotra scored 12,639 votes next to Tory candidate Mark Bowen's 6,436, giving her a majority of 6,203 with a swing of 8.6%.

The Lib Dems polled 1,364 votes and Ukip polled 1,276. The BNP came in fifth place with 540 votes, while the Greens came in sixth with 426.

Poor weather, short days, a rapid campaign timetable and the distraction of the holiday season meant turnout was just 28.8%, the lowest in a by-election for 11 years.

Ms Malhotra, who worked as an adviser to Harriet Harman just after the 2010 election, said the result showed Labour was winning the argument and regaining voters' trust.

Few pollsters doubted Labour would keep control of the constituency and the swing from the Conservatives and Lib Dems to the opposition party was in line with expectations.

The constituency is considered relatively safe for Labour, but it was Tory-controlled when Margaret Thatcher was prime minster.

It is one of the bell-weather seats used by analysts to establish whether a party can secure a majority in the Commons. The Conservatives' failure to win it in 2010 signalled a hung parliament.

Labour benefitted from public dissatisfaction with the coalition, with the Conservatives share of the vote down from 33% to 28% and the Lib Dems from 14% to under six per cent.

Ukip activists hoped to replace the Lib Dems in third place, amid heightened euroscepticism surrounding the EU fiscal consolidation talks on the continent.

The party failed in its bid, but it more than doubled its share of the vote from two per cent to over five per cent.

While the figures make dire reading for the Lib Dems, strategists will be secretly pleased they retained third place after the Barnsley by-election in March when they came sixth. The party managed to keep its deposit.

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