By-elections – live: Labour clinch Kingswood ahead of Wellingborough result

Sir Keir Starmer has said Labour’s win in Kingswood shows people are ready to trust the party in government.

The Labour leader praised Damien Egan’s “fantastic” win, after he overturned a Conservative majority of more than 11,000.

Sir Keir said: “This is a fantastic result in Kingswood that shows people are ready to put their trust in a Labour government.

“By winning in this Tory stronghold, we can confidently say that Labour is back in the service of working people and we will work tirelessly to deliver for them.

“To those who have put their trust in us, you can be safe in the knowledge that the Labour Party will deliver on your priorities. Labour will give Britain its future back.”

The Northamptonshire constituency was won by Peter Bone for the Conservatives at every general election from 2005 to 2019.

He increased the Tories’ share of the vote at each poll, pushing it up from 43% in 2005 to 48% in 2010, 52% in 2015, 57% in 2017 and 62% in 2019.

Labour came second in four of the five contests, the exception being 2015 when Ukip was runner-up.

Further back, Labour won Wellingborough at the 1997 and 2001 general elections.

The chain of events that led to the by-election began when Mr Bone received a six-week suspension from the House of Commons after an inquiry found he had subjected a staff member to bullying and sexual misconduct.

The suspension triggered a recall petition in his constituency which was signed by more than 10% of voters – the threshold for an MP to be removed from their seat.

The by-election is similar to Kingswood in that is it a two-horse race between the Conservatives and Labour.

However, the swing needed by Labour to win the seat is larger, at 17.9 percentage points – in other words, the equivalent of a net change of 18 in every 100 people who voted Tory in 2019 switching sides.

This is still a smaller swing than the ones managed by Labour in 2023 at the by-elections in Tamworth, Selby & Ainsty and Mid Bedfordshire.

There are 11 candidates standing in this by-election: Nick the Flying Brick (Official Monster Raving Loony), Ana Gunn (Liberal Democrat), Ben Habib (Reform), Helen Harrison (Conservative), Ankit Love Jknpp Jay Mala Post-Mortem (no description), Gen Kitchen (Labour), Alex Merola (Britain First), Will Morris (Green), Andre Pyne-Bailey (Independent), Marion Turner-Hawes (no description) and Kev Watts (Independent).

The constituency of Wellingborough is being replaced at the next general election by the new seat of Wellingborough & Rushden.

Reform UK is expected to have won more votes than the difference between Labour and the Tories in Kingswood – helping tip Rishi Sunak’s party to a devastating loss.

With hours to go until the result is announced, Labour expects to have clinched the seat – vacated by former Tory MP Chris Skidmore.

Sources expect Reform to have picked up enough of the vote to have effectively deprived the Conservatives of a win.

Reform UK’s Ben Habib has claimed the Nigel Farage-backed party “won the air war” in the Wellingborough by-election.

The former MEP said he expects Labour to have won the seat, but said Reform made the biggest impact across the country.

“Whatever the outcome, we’ve made big inroads through this by-election and, if I may say so, I think to the extent that there was an air war, we absolutely crucified both the Labour Party and Tory party,” Mr Habib told The Independent.

He added: “Nationally, the impression we made in this by election already has been much bigger.”

Mr Habib said he will stand in Wellingborough again, having “developed an affinity to the people”.

We are 15 minutes away from finding out who has won the Kingswood by-election

The MP for North East Somerset has arrived at the count.

We spoke to him. He said he had come for GB News, for which he is a presenter, and because he had a “particular interest” with boundary changes bringing part of this constituency into his at the next general election.

Would he be concerned of the impact if Labour won the Kingswood by-election? He said: “MPs always want people to vote for the party that they represent so with all elections I want people to vote Conservative and I’m very conscious that at by-elections with a 37 per cent turnout events are very different from a general election.

“I did quite alot of campaigning for the by-election in the part that will become part of North East Somerset and there’s not alot of enthusiasm for the Tories, but there isn’t alot of enthusiasm for Keir Starmer.”

A Labour source has told The Independent the campaign team are moving from “hopeful to optimistic”, with results of the Wellingborough by-election expected within hours.

Rival parties have conceded that they expect a Labour win, with figures in the Tory camp conceding that the contest was always going to be “tough”.

Chris Skidmore won the Gloucestershire constituency for the Conservatives at the past four general elections, increasing his share of the vote on each occasion, from 40% in 2010 to 49% in 2015, 55% in 2017 and 56% in 2019.

Before 2010, Labour had won the seat at every general election since 1992.

This week’s by-election was triggered by Mr Skidmore’s resignation as MP in January, in protest at Government legislation to boost North Sea oil and gas drilling.

He had previously announced his intention to stand down at the next general election, when the constituency is being abolished.

Labour came second in the seat at each of the past four general elections and is the main challenger in Thursday’s contest.

To win, the party needs a swing in the share of the vote of 11.4 percentage points.

This is the equivalent of a net change of 12 in every 100 people who voted Conservative in 2019 switching sides.

It is a much smaller swing than the ones achieved by Labour in its recent by-election successes against the Tories, such as 23.9 percentage points at Tamworth, 23.7 points at Selby & Ainsty and 20.5 points at Mid Bedfordshire.

There are six candidates standing in the by-election: Sam Bromiley (Conservative), Andrew Brown (Liberal Democrat), Damien Egan (Labour), Lorraine Francis (Green), Rupert Lowe (Reform) and Nicholas Wood (Ukip).

The abolition of the constituency at the next general election – which has to take place by law no later than January 2025 – means whoever wins the by-election will represent the seat for only a few months.

Tory candidate in the Kingswood by-election Sam Bromiley is here at the count at Thornbury Leisure Centre.

The leader of the Conservatives on South Gloucestershire Council has focused his campaign on protecting the local green belt from housing.

It’s a hot topic locally with many concerned over a loss of countryside to needed housing – but will it be enough to get people to vote him, we’ll find out soon enough.