Forex Trading For Beginners 2021: Conservatives take Hartlepool seat from Labour

Hartlepool has a Conservative MP for the first time since the constituency's creation, after Jill Mortimer won the by-election.

Ms Mortimer beat her closest rival, Labour's Paul Williams by nearly 7,000 votes.

The result is a blow for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in his first election test since taking over the party.

But the Conservatives will hope it is a sign of building on its 2019 election win in traditional Labour seats.

There were 16 candidates standing in the by-election, but Conservative Ms Mortimer won with 15,529 votes, while Labour's Mr Williams received 8,589.

She hailed it as a "truly historic" result, saying she was proud to be the first Conservative MP for 57 years.

She said: "Not only that, I am the first woman ever to be elected as MP for this town.

"Labour have taken people in Hartlepool for granted for too long.

"I heard this time and time again on the doorstep and people have had enough and now, through this result, the people have spoken and have made it clear it is time for change."

Labour's disappointment

The Hartlepool constituency was formed in 1974 and had returned a Labour MP in every vote since - until Thursday's poll.

The seat came back into contention after its former Labour MP, Mike Hill, resigned in March, and was contested by 16 candidates.

There was dismay at the result from within Labour, as shadow local government secretary Steve Reed said: "People understand the leader has changed, they don't understand that the party has changed, because we haven't yet done enough to prove that."

But Labour MP Richard Burgon, who was shadow justice secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, called the result "incredibly disappointing".

He tweeted: "Labour's leadership needs to urgently change direction. It should start by championing the popular policies in our recent manifestos - backed by a large majority of voters."

And the left-wing Momentum group, which backed Jeremy Corbyn, described the Hartlepool by-election result as a "disaster".

Momentum co-chair Andrew Scattergood said: "A transformative socialist message has won in Hartlepool before, and it would have won again.

"Starmer's strategy of isolating the left and replacing meaningful policy with empty buzzwords has comprehensively failed."

Speaking in the days ahead of the vote, Sir Keir said he would take "full responsibility" for Labour's results.

But the party leader - who took over the job from Jeremy Corbyn 13 months ago - warned he had a "mountain to climb" to claw back votes from Labour's worst general election performance since 1935.

The Conservatives claimed a number of key marginal seats in that 2019 election across the "red wall" - constituencies in the Midlands and north of England which traditionally voted Labour.

The Tories welcomed the news, as the party's co-chairman Amanda Milling said: "We're delighted that the people of Hartlepool have put their faith in Jill and the Conservatives to deliver on their priorities: to bring the change, investment and jobs Hartlepool deserves."

The by election was one of a raft of elections taking place across Britain on Thursday, with voters picking representatives for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd, as well as mayors and local councils in England, and police and crime commissioners.

Analysis

By Richard Moss, BBC political editor for the North East and Cumbria

Governments gaining opposition seats in by-elections is not supposed to happen. But the Conservatives have done just that in Hartlepool, and handsomely.

Labour says this was a battle that came too soon in Sir Keir Starmer's push to rebuild support.

And it is true that the Tories would probably have won Hartlepool in the 2019 general election had the Brexit Party not picked up a quarter of the votes.

The movement of that support to Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer does seem to have been crucial to this win. Add to that a vaccine bounce, and Labour says it was always likely to come off second best.

That will not stop questions though about why Labour continues to lose in constituencies it used to count on, questions about whether the party is heading in the right direction, and about Sir Keir's appeal to voters in northern towns.

And many of those questions could come from within his own party. Not only from the Left, but also from Northern MPs who will be wondering if 2019 really was the party's low point - and whether any seats in the party's supposed heartland are truly safe anymore.

For the Conservatives, there are different questions. Once the celebrations are over, they will have to make good on campaign promises to bring jobs and investment to a community they now represent at Westminster.

They have pinned the blame for high levels of unemployment and poverty on Labour. Now they need to show that backing a Tory really does make a difference to people's lives and not just the political landscape.