The success of Labour candidate Ashley Dalton is the third by-election victory for the party in recent months, and it follows the resignation of veteran MP Rosie Cooper.
Labour has retained its seat in West Lancashire following a by-election triumph in which Ashley Dalton was elected as the country’s newest member of parliament.
Ms. Dalton earned an 8,326-vote lead over Mike Prendergast, the Conservative candidate, with a 10,52 percent swing from the Tories to the Labour Party.
In her victory speech, she stated that her constituents had sent a message to the Conservative administration that they “lack confidence in their ability to govern or in the prime minister’s ability to lead.”
She said that these are “trying times for our country” due to the cost-of-living crisis and urged the Conservatives to “get out of the way and allow Labour to take over.”
The outcome represented Labour’s third by-election triumph in recent months.
Labour retained its seat in Stretford and Urmston, Greater Manchester, with a 10.5% swing from the Conservatives to Labour in December.
The triumph occurred just two weeks after Labour’s victory in Chester, where Samantha Dixon held the seat with an 11,000-plus margin over the Conservatives.
Ms. Cooper, who was 72 years old at the time, left in November to become the chairwoman of the Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
The MP was the target of an alleged assassination attempt by a member of the outlawed neo-Nazi organization National Action, and she stated that the ordeal had “taken its toll.”
Sir Keir Starmer emailed Ms. Dalton his congratulations following her decisive victory.
“I look forward to working with you, Ashley,” added the party leader.
After 13 years of Tory decline, it is time for a Labour government, according to the message from West Lancashire today.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, also lauded the “significant swing, double-digit swing, to the Labour Party.
“Voters there are giving a clear message to Rishi Sunak and his administration that, frankly, they are no longer fit to govern, and they want a general election and a choice now about who is in governing because this government has run out of ideas and road,” she explained.
West Lancashire has been a bastion of the Labour Party since 1992 when Colin Pickthall succeeded Conservative MP Ken Hind, who had held the seat since 1983.
Although Ms. Cooper won with a larger majority in 2015 and 2017, her majority decreased in 2019.
West Lancashire separates Labour-supporting Liverpool from the Conservative-held constituencies of South Ribble, Southport, and Bolton West.
The constituency is a combination of rural and urban areas, and its major town, Skelmersdale, has comparatively high levels of deprivation in comparison to the more prosperous neighboring towns of Aughton and Ormskirk.
