Wellingborough and Kingswood by-elections: Labour scores double victory over Tories

Labour has inflicted two by-election defeats on the Conservatives, overturning big majorities to take Wellingborough and Kingswood.

In Wellingborough the party overcame a majority of more than 18,500 to take the Northamptonshire seat.

The swing of 28.5% was the second biggest from the Tories to Labour in any post-war by-election.

In Kingswood, where the Tories previously had a majority of more than 11,000, there was a swing of 16.4%

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the results showed "people want change and are ready to put their faith in a changed Labour Party to deliver it".

It means the Tories have suffered 10 by-election losses this Parliament - more than any previous government since the 1960s.

With a general election due this year, the latest defeats are a major blow for Mr Sunak, whose party is trailing Labour in national polls.

In Wellingborough, Labour's Gen Kitchen, a former London councillor who works in the charity sector and grew up in Northamptonshire, secured a comfortable majority of 6,436.

Meanwhile, the Tories suffered their biggest drop in vote share in any by-election since at least the Second World War.

Ms Kitchen said: "The people of Wellingborough have spoken for Britain. This is a stunning victory for the Labour Party and must send a message from Northamptonshire to Downing Street."

Mr Bone had held the constituency since 2005, increasing his majority since then to turn it into a safe Tory seat.

His partner, Northamptonshire councillor Helen Harrison, was selected by local members as the Tory candidate to replace him.

Ms Harrison told the BBC she would be "back and fighting again for the general election".

The Tories also faced a challenge from the right with Reform UK, which achieved its best by-election result since it rebranded from its previous name, the Brexit Party, in 2021.

The party came third in both by-elections, picking up 13% of the vote in Wellingborough and 10.4% in Kingswood.

Labour secured a majority of 2,501 over Tory candidate Sam Bromiley in the South Gloucestershire seat of Kingswood, near Bristol.

In his victory speech Damien Egan, who resigned as mayor of Lewisham in London to fight the seat where he grew up, said 14 years of a Conservative government had "sucked the hope out of our country"

He blamed "Rishi's recession" for leaving people "paying more and getting less".

Conservative MP and former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, who represents the nearby seat of North East Somerset, said the Kingswood result was "not as bad as I'd expected".

He told the BBC a lot of Tory voters appeared to have stayed at home and suggested more could turn out at a general election, which he said "focuses people's minds in a different way to a by-election".

Mr Rees-Mogg said the Tories needed to focus on appealing to voters who had turned to Reform, adding that there was "a lot of common ground" between the two parties.

He insisted support for Mr Sunak's leadership was "solid" and "by-elections don't change that".