to northern ireland must continue for now. rescuers are still desperately trying to reach a five—year—old boy who fell into a well near in morocco on tuesday. the conservatives have won the southend west by—election, trigged by the fatal stabbing of the tory mp sir david amess. anna firth got a majority of more than 12,000. the seat was not contested by labour, the liberal democrats or the green party. just 24% of the electorate voted, making it one of the worst turnouts for a by—election since the second world war. here's simon dedman. it's not a massive surprise that the conservatives held this seat with a large majority. there was no mainstream opposition, but the turnout was amongst the lowest of any westminster by—election since world war two atjust 24%. and whilst that was down, the number of spoilt ballots was up. in fact, there were more of those than votes for the candidate that came second, the psychedelic movement. this is what the winner, anna firth, made of that. well, ithink, actually, you would expect a high number of spoilt ballots in an election where there is actually no left wing candidate standing at all.