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| Tories win Copeland by-election as Labour holds Stoke | Tories win Copeland by-election as Labour holds Stoke |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The Conservatives have won the Copeland by-election - beating Labour in a seat it has held since its creation in 1983. | |
| Trudy Harrison won with 13,748 votes to Labour's Gillian Troughton's 11,601. | |
| Ms Harrison hailed the victory - the first by-election gain by a governing party since 1982 - as "a truly historic event". | Ms Harrison hailed the victory - the first by-election gain by a governing party since 1982 - as "a truly historic event". |
| Labour's Gareth Snell held Stoke-on-Trent Central with 7,853 votes, seeing off a challenge from UKIP leader Paul Nuttall who got 5,233. | |
| Labour had held both seats since their creation but was forced to defend them when two former frontbenchers, Tristram Hunt and Jamie Reed, resigned as MPs. | |
| Eleven famous by-elections | |
| In the west Cumbrian seat of Copeland, Labour's majority in 2015 was just 2,564 but it is unusual for an opposition party to lose a seat to the governing party in a by-election. | |
| Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said the Copeland result was the best by-election performance by a governing party in terms of the increase in its share of the vote since January 1966. | Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said the Copeland result was the best by-election performance by a governing party in terms of the increase in its share of the vote since January 1966. |
| Ms Harrison, who had been joined by Prime Minister Theresa May on the campaign trail, got 44.3% of the vote - in 2015, the Conservatives got 35.8%. | |
| In her victory speech, Ms Harrison said: "It's been very clear talking to people throughout this campaign that [Labour leader] Jeremy Corbyn doesn't represent them. | |
| "They want a party which is on the side of ordinary working people, which will respect the way we voted in the referendum and which will build a country which represents everyone. That's why they voted for me tonight." | |
| Mr Corbyn said the party's "message was not enough to win through in Copeland" but hailed victory in Stoke as a "decisive rejection of UKIP's politics of division and dishonesty". | |
| He added: "Labour will go further to reconnect with voters and break with the failed political consensus." | He added: "Labour will go further to reconnect with voters and break with the failed political consensus." |
| Copeland results in full | |
| Trudy Harrison, Conservatives, 13,748 | |
| Gillian Troughton, Labour, 11,601 | |
| Rebecca Hanson, Lib Dems, 2,252 | |
| Fiona Mills, UKIP, 2,025 | |
| Michael Guest, Independent, 811 | |
| Jack Lenox, Greens, 515 | |
| Roy Ivinson, Independent, 116 | |
| Turnout - 51.27% | |
| In Stoke-on-Trent, UKIP had hoped to capitalise on voters' leanings towards Brexit - the area voted strongly to leave the EU in June. | In Stoke-on-Trent, UKIP had hoped to capitalise on voters' leanings towards Brexit - the area voted strongly to leave the EU in June. |
| But in his victory speech, the new Labour MP Mr Snell said voters had "chosen the politics of hope over the politics of fear". | |
| "This city will not allow ourselves to be defined by last year's referendum and we will not allow ourselves to be divided by the result," he said. | "This city will not allow ourselves to be defined by last year's referendum and we will not allow ourselves to be divided by the result," he said. |
| He said the result was "a victory for the whole Labour Party and Labour movement". | |
| But Labour's share of the vote was 37% - slightly down on the 39.3% it got in 2015. | |
| UKIP got 24.7% of the vote and the Conservatives 24.4% - both slightly higher than their 2015 vote shares. | |
| The Conservative candidate, Jack Brereton, came third with 5,154 votes. | |
| Speaking to journalists after the result, UKIP leader Mr Nuttall said his party's "time would come". | |
| "There's a lot more to come from us," he said. | |
| "We are not going anywhere, I'm not going anywhere." | |
| Stoke-on-Trent Central results in full | Stoke-on-Trent Central results in full |
| Gareth Snell, Labour 7,853 | Gareth Snell, Labour 7,853 |
| Paul Nuttall, UKIP 5,233 | Paul Nuttall, UKIP 5,233 |
| Jack Brereton, Conservative 5,154 | Jack Brereton, Conservative 5,154 |
| Zulfiqar Ali Lib Dems, 2,083 | Zulfiqar Ali Lib Dems, 2,083 |
| Adam Colclough, Greens, 294 | Adam Colclough, Greens, 294 |
| Barbara Fielding, Independent, 137 | Barbara Fielding, Independent, 137 |
| The Incredible Flying Brick, Official Monster Raving Loony Party, 127 | The Incredible Flying Brick, Official Monster Raving Loony Party, 127 |
| David Furness, British National Party Local People First, 124 | David Furness, British National Party Local People First, 124 |
| Godfrey Davies Christian People's Alliance, 109 | Godfrey Davies Christian People's Alliance, 109 |
| Mohammed Akram, Independent, 56 | Mohammed Akram, Independent, 56 |
| Turnout - 36.7% | |