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Another poll defeat for Labour

LONDON: Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s political difficulties deepened on Friday, as for the first time in more than 25 years, the Labour Party lost a parliamentary by-election to the Tories. With this victory, the Conservatives took another step towards winning the next general election, which is due in less than two years.

Labour’s defeat in Thursday’s election in Crewe and Nantwich — a party stronghold in the north-west England — came barely weeks after it lost the London mayoral election, reviving talk of a leadership change. Mr. Brown, who has been struggling in the face of steadily declining poll ratings, was accused of taking the party in the “wrong direction.”

At least one senior MP, Graham Stringer, demanded his resignation, and the party’s deputy leader Harriet Harman admitted that there were “discordant voices” among backbench MPs. Mr. Brown acknowledged that the voters had given a “clear and unequivocal” message that they wanted to see things improved.

“The message that we have got is that people are concerned. They’re concerned about rising food prices, rising petrol prices. The people are concerned, rightly, about gas and electricity bills,” he said.

The by-election was held after the death of the sitting Labour MP Gwyneth Dundwoody, a party veteran and former Speaker of the House of Commons.

The party fielded her daughter Tamsin Dundwoody hoping that, if nothing else, she would win on the strength of the sympathy factor. But she was trounced by Tory lightweight Edward Timpson by an unexpectedly large margin.

Some blamed her defeat on Labour’s “negative” campaign tactics, which targeted Mr. Timpson’s “posh” class background. Tory leader David Cameron boasted that the verdict marked the end of “New Labour” and the start of “something different and something bigger.”

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