Labour’s share of the vote increased by more than seven points to 62.1 per cent and there was a 2.27 per cent swing from Ukip to Labour.
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Responding to former London mayor Ken Livingstone’s suggestion that he would back moves to deselect MPs who voted for military action in Syria, Mr Watson said: “I’m not entirely sure his words are helping the Labour Party”.
Whether or not it’s true, as Mr Farage claims, that “Ukip does not get votes from people who do not speak English”, the chances of it having made a signficant difference to the outcome are small.
Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn (C) and Labour candidate Jim McMahon (L).
The Ukip leader told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “There are some really quite big ethnic changes now in the way people are voting”.
I am delighted that Labour has not only won the Oldham West and Royton by-election – but increased our share of the vote since the general election in May.
Mr McDonnell said their goal was to turn Labour into a “mass social movement” instead of a traditional party.
“I can only say if there were Labour party members on that demonstration, intimidating staff members and an MP like that, then I think they should be removed from the party”.
Jeremy Corbyn needed a boost after the week he has had and the Oldham West and Royton by-election has delivered it.
“That is a matter for local Labour parties to determine who is going to be the Labour candidate in the 2020 election or in local elections or the other elections next May”.
He claimed the postal voting system was “not fit for democracy right now”, while Ukip’s deputy leader Paul Nuttall said postal votes had “distorted the result” amid claims Labour had focused on the Asian community with an alleged surge in postal ballots yesterday.
Just four years after 1997, Labour secured a second landslide in succession and a majority of 167 seats over the Conservatives.
John Bickley, a Mancunian businessman turned Ukip treasurer, was selected to take on Labour after putting the scare on Corbyn’s party at the 2014 Heywood and Middleton by-election where he slashed Labour’s majority to just 617 votes.
Mr McDonnell acknowledged the quality of the shadow foreign secretary’s address, but warned: “It reminded me of Tony Blair’s speech taking us into the Iraq War”.
Mr McMahon added: “We need to remember what is now at stake under this Tory government”. Ukip would do well to cut the Tory vote in half but I doubt that it will win them all. Although no Labour MPs wanted the party to lose the seat, some secretly hoped it would get a good kicking from UKIP and these issues would have been discussed and potentially addressed.
Mr Watson also turned his fire on Labour MPs who had gone “too far” in their public criticism of Mr Corbyn. Labour currently holds a commanding 55% of the vote, Ukip is on 21%, the Tories on 19% and Liberal Democrats on less than four per cent. It is easy to see how Ukip could dramatically close the gap on Labour, making inroads into Labour’s base, winning over some Tories and hoovering up what few Liberal Democrats there are now in the seat.
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I suggest he tells his leader, Jeremy Corbyn, exactly that, because Corbyn is the man who believes terrorists shouldn’t be shot or bombed and that we should not have a nuclear deterrent.
