Kingswood and Wellingborough by-election wins: Two historic Labour victories that show scale of Britain’s appetite for change

The incredible by-election results in Kingswood and Wellingborough are a hammer-blow to Rishi Sunak’s Tory Government – and they reveal a British public desperate for a general election.

It has been decades since either seat voted for Labour, but enormous swings away from the Conservatives and to Keir Starmer’s Labour Party prove that we are in the service of working people again.

Labour were faced with the uphill task of overturning majorities of over 11,000 in Kingswood and almost 19,000 in Wellingborough – beyond the kind of seats needed to win a general election.

There needs to be more than government unpopularity to turn around those numbers. Labour needed to earn voters’ trust that candidates Damien Egan and Gen Kitchen would deliver for their constituencies.

And with enormous swings of 16% and 28% respectively, they absolutely delivered.

“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,” Labour leader Keir Starmer said.

“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.”

These results came in what some believed were Tory ‘safe seats’. But Keir Starmer’s changed Labour Party is ready to speak to voters in every corner of the country. To replicate results like this, we need your help: if you can chip in £5 today, we can take the fight to the Tories and get Britain’s future back, together.

Photo: Ian Vogler