Labour campaign coordinator claims Sidcup voters ‘stayed at home’ over sleaze

Labour’s national campaign coordinator Shabana Mahmood has suggested that low turnout at yesterday’s by-election in Old Bexley and Sidcup was down to voter dissatisfaction with the government.

She told Sky News’ Breakfast programme that the prime minister “should be worried” after the Conservative Party’s majority in the seat shrunk to 4,478.

The seat’s former MP James Brokenshire, who died after a battle with cancer on 8 October, was re-elected in 2019 with a majority of 18,952.

She said campaigners in the “true blue” seat found a “lot of dissatisfaction with the Prime Minster and his government”.

“They are fed up with the sleaze, they are fed up with the broken promises and many Tory voters registered that dissatisfaction yesterday – some of them stayed at home, and many of them made the switch over to the Labour Party,” she went on.