Britain's opposition Labour Party won a parliamentary by-election on Friday, fending off the UK Independence Party and raising questions about the populist anti-European Union party's electoral credentials.
Britain's opposition Labour Party won a parliamentary by-election on Friday, fending off the UK Independence Party and raising questions about the populist anti-European Union party's electoral credentials.
Labour won the Stoke-on-Trent Central seat by a comfortable albeit reduced margin over UKIP which had fielded its leader and been hoping to capitalise on the area's staunchly pro-Brexit stance.
The victory for Labour raised doubts that UKIP, which has had a dramatic impact on British politics in the last decade playing a major role in bringing about last year's referendum on the EU and the vote to leave, can turn that influence into seats in parliament.
UKIP's former leader and best-known figure Nigel Farage had warned the Stoke vote was vital for the party's future. Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives came third, just behind UKIP.
The former industrial city had been a safe Labour seat since 1950, but the party's support for staying in the EU put it at odds with 70 percent of Stoke voters who backed Brexit.
UKIP failed to capitalise on the anti-establishment sentiment it tapped so successfully when persuading voters to back Brexit last year, despite pouring resources into the campaign and putting party leader Paul Nuttall forward as its candidate.
"UKIP's time will come ... there's a lot more to come from us, we're not going anywhere, I'm not going anywhere," Nuttall told reporters after the result.
He said the seat was only ranked 72 on UKIP's list of target seats.
"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," Labour's winning candidate Gareth Snell said. (Writing by William James; editing by Michael Holden)
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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