After three bad weeks for Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party’s far-left leader, most pundits duly predicted that the party would do badly in the Oldham West by-election on December 3rd, and that it might even lose the seat, which the late Michael Meacher won with a majority of nearly 15,000 votes in May, to the anti-European, anti-immigrant UK Independence Party (UKIP). It since spurred a number of prophesies that Nigel Farage’s party could eventually sweep away the North from Labour, just as the SNP hoovered up Scotland.
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Speaking in the wake of his election victory, Mr McMahon was also stressed the need to turn fire on the Tories.
Retiring Oldham council leader Mr McMahon thrashed Ukip by 10,722 votes in Oldham West and Royton, with Nigel Farage’s party failing to get close to Labour.
But it has not changed the underlying dynamic of conflict between Corbyn and most of the party membership on one side, and the overwhelming majority of Labour MPs on the other.
“It’s time for them to join with members and take the fight to the Tories with the anti-austerity politics that Jeremy Corbyn was elected to take forward”.
While the trauma of losing Scotland provides an emotive warning to Labour, an often-forgotten fact about the Heywood and Middleton by-election was that the party actually increased its own vote share.
“They can’t speak English, they have never heard of Ukip or the Conservative Party, they haven’t even heard of Jeremy Corbyn”, he said.
Mr Carswell, who had been campaigning ahead of the poll, but was on at the count last night, said of the result: “It was disappointing. It means effectively that in some of these seats where people don’t speak English and they sign up to postal votes, effectively the electoral process is now dead”. McMahon said he was glad to be able to return a vote that Meacher could be proud of.
In some ways, the result therefore shouldn’t have been a surprise – in particular as Oldham and West Royton is a constituency with one of the highest proportion of people from DE social grade amongst its population.
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson accused Mr Farage of “sour grapes” over the claims, adding: “If he has got evidence of that, he should have told the police immediately”.
“I hope our MPs can see that if you stand up for working people, they respond by voting for you in elections”, Watson told the BBC.
In a parliamentary vote on Wednesday on whether Britain should join US-led air strikes in Syria, some 67 of Labour’s 231 lawmakers voted in favour of bombing.
In a speech on the steps of Chadderton Town Hall, on Friday, Mr Corbyn said: “This campaign shows just how strong our party is”.
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Mr Kellner rowed back on his comments yesterday, admitting: “Jeremy Corbyn has every reason to be delighted. The hard work starts now”.
