The panic over Ukip has intensified since the defection of two Conservative MPs — Douglas Carswell, who defeated his old party
in a byelection in Clacton, and Mark Reckless, who is contesting Rochester and Strood on 20 November.
The MP has represented the fishing port since 1977, when he won the
seat in a byelection caused by the death of the former foreign secretary Tony Crosland.
And the Liberal Democrats edged up in both Stoke and Copeland, just as they have done
in every byelection since the EU referendum.
Leader ecstatic about pushing Tories to third
place in byelection and rules out any deal with «con man» David Cameron
On Friday the CBC reported that Elections Canada «wants parliamentary approval to conduct an electronic voting test -
run in a byelection by 2013.»
In an email explaining the procedures to his fellow Liberal Democrat peers, the party's chief whip in the Lords, Lord Newby, explains: «There is nothing to stop anybody
standing in these byelections and indeed two Liberal Democrats are doing so.»
Rolling coverage of the reaction to Ukip winning Claction from the
Conservatives in the byelection, and coming a close second to Labour in Heywood and Middleton
Copeland also represents the largest
increase in a byelection vote for the governing party since Labour gained Hull North in 1966.
The Cumbrian semi-rural seat of Copeland was seized by the Conservatives — the first time the main opposition party has lost a seat it was
defending in a byelection since 1982.
Meanwhile, in a sign of continuing tension following a tumultuous past week that saw the party split over airstrikes on Islamic State in Syria only to bounce
back in the byelection, senior figures say chief whip Rosie Winterton is coming in for most private criticism from Corbyn allies.
«I think the important part of the article is to show the party and the country that, while Labour has taken a beating, for
example in a byelection, we are not down and out,» Miliband said.
But, on the evening of the count an exasperated Nigel Farage, interviewed by Channel 4 News political correspondent Michael Crick, raised the first concerns about Conservative election expenses — which, he suggested, might have breached the # 100,000 limit for campaign
spending in a byelection.
Lucy Powell kept Manchester Central for Labour on a 18.16 % turnout - the
lowest in a byelection since World War Two.
A union member working at the site says you would need to multiply that number three or four times to get a good idea of the number of local people directly linked to it so it's little wonder that nuclear is expected to play a major
role in the byelection.
The Tories were encouraged by a post-Eastleigh poll, carried out by the party's former deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, which showed that nearly half (43 %) of Ukip's
supporters in the byelection would probably not vote for the party at the general election.
Interviewing the Tory MP Mark Pritchard, secretary of the 1922 backbenchers» committee, for Radio 4's Week in Westminster, I was startled to hear him acknowledging the logic of it: he may hate the so - called «purple plotters» who would like to fuse the Tory and Lib Dem parties, but he'd like to see «closer co-operation» between Tories and Lib
Dems in every byelection.
In the event, the Lib Dems won 12 seats, up from nine, but lost Richmond Park to the Tory Brexiteer Zac Goldsmith, who the party had
unseated in a byelection six months earlier.
He was still eligible to stand in the resulting Bristol South East byelection, which he won, but insisted on his right to abandon the peerage and kept his Commons seat
in a byelection on 4 May 1961 prompted by his succession.
Given its
record in byelections, it was perhaps dangerously easy to overlook the disadvantages the Lib Dem candidate faces: his predecessor disgraced, his party's national poll standing at a historic low, and the difficulty of attracting an already - squeezed local Labour vote — while preventing the Labour support borrowed last time from returning home.
Paul Nuttall (seat yet to be decided) The Ukip leader has dithered over whether and where to stand since the election was called but there is speculation that he could go for Boston and Skegness, a Tory - held Lincolnshire seat with high eastern European immigration, or Heywood and Middleton, a Labour - held seat outside Manchester where Ukip did
well in a byelection.
Mr Hughes, it will be recalled, originally won his south London seat
in a byelection at which he was felt to have been «homophobic».
As Tory MEP Daniel Hannan called on the party leadership to reach an agreement on «common ground» with Ukip, the party that forced the Tories into third
place in the byelection, Eleanor Laing called on the prime minister to lead a «truly Conservative government».
Clark and Redford met in Kelowna in June, while Clark was
running in a byelection, and announced a working group to collaborate on shared economic interests.
Sarah Olney says 21.5 %
swing in byelection was secured because Tory remain voters felt PM was only focusing on leave camp
Gillian Troughton, the Labour candidate, was defeated by the Conservatives» Trudy Harrison, marking the first time a governing party has taken a seat from another
party in a byelection in 35 years.
«I was elected
myself in a byelection just six months after our greatest landslide in 1997 and got a comparable share of the vote to that which Liz got»
Tory lieutenant makes Thatcher analogy as he insists PM will not lurch further to right after Ukip takes second place in byelection
Recently the party has won council seats
in byelections, polling - according to the BBC - an average of 14 % in 60 wards: close to the threshold necessary to get a seat in almost every European constituency in Britain.