Looking at the stats the actual winner was voter apathy.

Turn out at both was down by around 50%!!!!

The labour vote stayed stable at one and was down by 5000 in the other.

Hardly a victory.

The Tory vote was decimated by apathy and defections to more right wing parties. Hardly a surprise either.

I predicted that the tory vote would drop when Sunak was placed in charge due to his race. It dropped immediately by 6% and has not recovered. Its sad that anyone would think like that in this day and age. And you can't say it was due to policies or what he has done. It was immediate.

Those voters have turned to Reform.

Tory voters turned to Reform because Sunak isn't white?

Reform in this by-election was represented by the excellent Ben Habib. Personally I think he should be party leader over that liability Tice.

This is Ben Habib.

[Tweet Link]

Edited by Stirlingsays (16 Feb 2024 10.18am)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

If the Tories want to avoid a massacre, then they need to get rid of Sunak.
The man is a robot, repeating the same lines over and over. He has zero personality.
A simple message is one thing, but he sounds like an old Action Man when you pulled his chord.

The Reform Party seriously needs to up their game. If Farage was in charge they would have a better chance, although, I wouldn't blame him for no wanting to stand again.

Labour voters are either young and naive, have short memories, are of foreign origin and or are just plain stupid.
How anyone can look at the shadow cabinet and see that as a good option is beyond me.

I am about to read his tome "Starmer Sutra - How to hold multiple positions at the same time".

There must be more votes in Rochdale than there are driving licences. I wonder how many different spellings of Mohammed Mohamed were on the ballot.

Red and Blue Army!

You will have a Mountain to climb sorting that out.