Quintin Jardine's blog

A bad night for the Tories in England for sure, but before the rest get too excited: much is being made of Labour’s win in Blackpool South, but nobody is making anything of the fact that the Labour winner polled around 1500 fewer votes than its candidate in the 2019 general election.

Fact is that angry Tory voters stayed at home or voted for Reform, a fledgling right wing party that may help deliver a massive left wing majority nationally later this year.

For me, the other major losers in Blackpool were the shameless Lib Dems, who actually achieved a negative swing.