After a 12% swing in the vote Labour have re-captured Corby, marking the first time Labour have taken a seat from the Conservatives in a by-election since February 1997.
Labour’s candidate Andy Sawford won the seat by taking 17,267 votes with Conservative candidate Christine Emmet a distant second with just 9,476 votes.
Mr Sawford said that his win was a “damning verdict” on David Cameron’s leadership.
In response Mr Cameron said “it’s a classic mid-term result and obviously made difficult by the fact that the Conservative MP left the seat in question.”
The former MP in question Louise Mensch said she “took the blame for the defeat and also said that the result “is not going to mean anything” to the PM’s leadership.
Well it should, Corby is a marginal seat and marginal seats are ultimately where general elections are won and lost and as the Conservatives are 20 odd seats short of a majority they can’t really afford to pass this off as a typical mid-term result that means nothing.
If anything this result is a continuation of the defeats they suffered in the local councillor elections earlier in the year.
Yes Cameron and co still have two and a half years to rectify the situation and halt the progress being made by Labour, but they can’t leave it too much longer otherwise it will be too late.
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