Starmer leaves home on Saturday morning
There were small glimmers of hope for Labour, with the party performing well in Wales where it secured an effective majority and “stemmed the tide of Leave voters flooding away to the Conservatives”, according to English.
The party also did well in so-called “blue wall” traditionally Tory seats, but which voted Remain in 2016 and are now beginning to turn to Labour.
Starmer is likely to be pleased with Labour taking the West of England and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoralties.
And there were signs of a “Brighton effect” stretching out across the south coast as Labour took a swathe of seats on Worthing council, according to Hayward.
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So what went wrong and what does it mean?
– What happened in Hartlepool?
Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer has become the new MP, defeating Labour’s Paul Williams.
The importance of the contest was underlined by both Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer making repeated visits to the constituency during the course of the campaign.
– How bad a result is this for Labour?
Very. It is rare for a governing party to gain a seat at a by-election, the last one was another northern Labour seat in Copeland in 2017 and before that you have to go back to Mitcham and Morden in 1982.