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The Guardian

Labour has managed to hold on to the marginal seat of Peterborough, defeating predictions the contest could deliver a first by-election victory to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.
Addressing supporters on Friday morning following the count, Labour candidate Lisa Forbes said the result was “significant because it shows that the politics of division will never win”.

However, her party, like the Conservatives, lost a significant number of supporters to the recently-formed Brexit Party.
Forbes won 10,484, beating Brexit’s Mike Greene, who took 9,801 votes, a margin of just 683. The Conservatives were beaten into third place with 7,243 votes. Turnout was 48 per cent.
Nigel Farage, the Brexit Party leader, left the count through a back door just minutes before the result was announced.
After the result, Jeremy Corbyn said the Tories had been pushed to the margins because of the policy of cuts and disastrous handling of Brexit.
“This result shows that in spite of the divisions and deadlock over Brexit, when it comes to a vote on the issues that directly affect people’s lives, Labour’s case for real change has strong support across the country. I look forward to welcoming Lisa to parliament next week,” he said.
Greene said the Brexit Party had made a significant breakthrough, despite not winning.
“We have shaken up British politics with none of the data that is necessary to win a parliamentary election,” he said. “We’ve had two parties ruling for decades, that’s not happening any more.”

Stewart Jackson, the former Conservative MP for Peterborough, said the Tories suffered because of the failings of the parliamentary party.
“There has been no leader and Brexit policy has been a shambles. Once we deliver Brexit, and get a new leader in place, I think this seat will be back in contention,” he insisted.
The Liberal Democrats came fourth in the by-election with 4,159.
Brexit Party insiders said Labour’s reliance on a mainly Pakistani vote in inner-city wards had been the difference between the parties.

“Some of these houses had 14 people in them registered to vote. It would be interesting to see what proportion voted Labour,” said one.
Labour has denied relying on the city’s Asian voting, insisting it was a “racist trope”.
Richard Tice, the chair of the Brexit Party, said it lost because “we have been here four weeks, they have been here 100 years, they know where the voters are, that is how it works”.
It is a setback for Farage’s fledgling party, which argues for a no-deal departure from Europe and made a strong showing in last month’s European elections, securing the largest share of the vote and winning 29 seats. This was the first Westminster constituency it has tried to win since it was founded four months ago.

Although an opposition party is expected to win by-elections, Labour was seeking victory in a seat that voted 60 per cent to leave in the EU referendum.
Labour activists have acknowledged they also had to combat anger over the party’s selection of Fiona Onasanya as its last candidate. She was forced to stand down after lying to police about a speeding ticket following a recall petition across the constituency.
From Boris Johnson to Donald Trump, leaders who habitually lie win votes by giving people the lies they want
The victory will help Corbyn in his fight with critics within the party who have tried to persuade the Labour leader to change course over Brexit. Shadow cabinet members such as Emily Thornberry have urged him to change policy to campaign for a second referendum.
Other senior figures, such as the party chair Ian Lavery, have argued that Labour will be decimated in parts of northern England and Wales if it tries to run another referendum.
Corbyn has said Labour would back a referendum on a Brexit deal but not necessarily one that included an option to remain.
Steve Bannon says Brexiteer ‘friend’ Nigel Farage in the running to be UK prime minister
Party insiders said they won because they were backed by hundreds of activists and campaigned on local issues.
One Labour fixer said before the result: “If we pull this off, it will show that you can run a local campaign and beat a huge national issue. We have policing, fly-tipping and education; they have Brexit, Brexit and more Brexit.”
Forbes faced controversy in the week before the poll over a Facebook post she “liked” which said Theresa May has a “Zionist slave masters agenda”. She told The Sunday Times she apologised and liked the video attached to the post, “not the views expressed in the accompanying text”.


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Brexit

UK’s Labour scrapes past Brexit Party to hold seat in Peterborough by-election

Lisa Forbes of the Labour Party accepts her win in Peterborough, England. Photo: AFP

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, right, and party candidate Mike Greene,have a drink at The Bull public house in Newborough prior to votes being counted in the Peterborough by-election, in Peterborough, England, Thursday June 6, 2019. (Joe Giddens/PA via AP)

Lisa Forbes of the Labour Party accepts her win for the local seat after all votes are in and counted at the Kingsgate Conference Centre in Peterborough, England on June 6, 2019. - A local by-election was triggered when Peterborough's former MP Fiona Onasanya was sacked by her constituents in the first successful re-call petition prompting a by-election. (Photo by Lindsey Parnaby / AFP)

Alan "Howling Laud" Hope of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (L) and party faithful arrive at the Kingsgate Conference Centre in Peterborough, England on June 6, 2019. - A local by-election was triggered when Peterborough's former MP Fiona Onasanya was sacked by her constituents in the first successful re-call petition prompting a by-election. (Photo by Lindsey Parnaby / AFP)

Labour Party faithful cheer as Lisa Forbes accepts her win for the local seat after all votes are in and counted at the Kingsgate Conference Centre in Peterborough, England on June 6, 2019. - A local by-election was triggered when Peterborough's former MP Fiona Onasanya was sacked by her constituents in the first successful re-call petition prompting a by-election. (Photo by Lindsey Parnaby / AFP)

Votes being counted at the Kingsgate Conference Centre in Peterborough. Photo: AFP

Steve Bannon says Brexiteer ‘friend’ Nigel Farage in the running to be UK prime minister

Steve Bannon: ‘I congratulated him on a stunning victory’. Photo: AFP

***PLEASE CLEAR THE COPYRIGHTS BEFORE REUSE*** Donald Trump meets with Nigel Farage in his office. Twitter

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage arrives at the party's HQ, prior to an event to mark the gains his party made in the European Elections, in London, Monday, May 27, 2019. In results announced Monday for all regions of the U.K. except Northern Ireland, the Brexit Party had won 29 of the 73 British EU seats up for grabs and almost a third of the votes. (AP Photo/Vudi Xhymshiti)

Nigel Farage conceded that he does ‘not yet’ have a policy beyond Brexit. Photo: EPA

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage acts like a winner as EU election disaster looms for UK’s two main parties

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage gives a thumbs up while riding a campaign bus in Sunderland, Britain, May 11, 2019. REUTERS/Scott Heppell

Change UK MP Chuka Umunna speaks during a European Parliament election campaign rally at the Manchester Technology Centre in Manchester, northwest England, on May 21, 2019. - Despite voting in a referendum to leave the European Union in 2016 Britain is braced to take part in the European Parliament election on May 23. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May grimaces during her speech on Brexit in London, Britain May 21, 2019. Kirsty Wigglesworth/Pool via REUTERS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

According to the latest opinion polls, the populist Brexit Party, led by Nigel Farage is set to grab 32 seats in the European Parliament. Photo: EPA

Look who’s back: Nigel Farage vows to end UK PM Theresa May’s Brexit ‘sell-out’

Nigel Farage, who spearheaded the drive to get Britain out of the EU, announces a return to the fray in a bid to scupper the government’s Brexit blueprint

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a press conference in 10 Downing Street, London, Saturday, April 14, 2018. British Prime Minister Theresa May says the need to act quickly and protect "operational security" led her to strike Syria without a prior vote in Parliament. (Simon Dawson/Pool Photo via AP)

Nigel Farage, who spearheaded the drive to get Britain out of the EU, announced Saturday he was returning to the fray in a bid to scupper the government’s Brexit blueprint. File photo: Reuters

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World

Europe

Both Labour and Conservatives lost significant amount of support in town that voted 60 per cent to leave the EU in Brexit referendum


Both Labour and Conservatives lost significant amount of support in town that voted 60 per cent to leave the EU in Brexit referendum.


Britain

UK’s Labour scrapes past Brexit Party to hold seat in Peterborough by-election

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Both Labour and Conservatives lost significant amount of support in town that voted 60 per cent to leave the EU in Brexit referendum

Both Labour and Conservatives lost significant amount of support in town that voted 60 per cent to leave the EU in Brexit referendum