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Rishi Sunak has broken his silence after the Conservative party suffered a double by-election defeat in Wellingborough and Kingswood on Thursday, 15 February.While on a visit to Harlow police station on Friday, the Prime Minister called the circumstances of the losses “particularly challenging.”“I think if you look at the results, very low turnout, and it shows that we’ve got work to do to show people we are delivering on their priorities.”Mr Sunak said that the low turnout also showed that “there isn’t a huge amount of enthusiasm for Keir Starm and the Labour Party.” More

Sir Keir Starmer defended his judgement after Labour suspended two parliamentary candidates over their remarks about Israel.The Labour leader spoke to BBC Breakfast on Friday morning, 16 February, following a tumultuous week for the party.“I did something that no leader of the Labour party has ever done before, which is to remove a candidate in a by-election where they cannot be replaced because I was so determined to take decisive action in relation to anti-semitism,” the Labour leader said.Mr Starmer has faced backlash for the speed of his decision after a damaging 48 hours in which he initially backed Azhar Ali over anti-semitic comments, before changing his mind. More

Sir Keir Starmer was asked how he’s trying to be “more appealing” to voters ahead of a general election this year.The Labour leader spoke to BBC Breakfast on Friday morning, 16 February, after the party won two by-elections the day before.“I’m working on how to be the best leader I can be of the Labour Party in very difficult circumstances,” he said, referencing the 2019 election as Labour’s worst defeat since 1935 (he mistakenly says 2035).“The progress we’ve made from the worst result since 1935, to being now credible contenders, and that’s all we are, for the 2024 election.” More

This is the moment Labour’s Gen Kitchen wins the Wellingborough by-election, overturning a Conservative majority of more than 18,500.Ms Kitchen said she was “ecstatic” at the result, and the double by-election win for Labour shows people are “fed up” and want change.The candidate said she cut short her honeymoon to begin campaigning when she was told former Conservative MP Peter Bone had been suspended from the Commons.She was announced as the winner on Friday (16 February) just over two hours after Labour also triumphed at Kingswood and she achieved the second-largest swing from Tory to Labour at a by-election since the Second World War. More

This is the moment Labour’s Damien Egan is pronounced the winner of the Kingswood by-election.As the party overturned a Conservative majority of more than 11,000, Mr Egan claimed “The Tories have sucked the hope out of our country”.In his victory speech in the early hours of Friday morning (16 February), Mr Egan thanked the activists who helped him win and the people of Kingswood for putting their trust in him.He said: “It’s a trust that I promise to repay, to show you that politics can be different and it can make a difference.” More

Jeremy Hunt insisted prioritising tackling inflation was the “right thing to do” after the UK slid into a recession.“We always expected growth to be weaker while we prioritised tackling inflation, that means higher interest rates, and that is the right thing to do because you can’t have long-term healthy growth with high inflation,” the Chancellor said today (Thursday).Mr Hunt continued: “The underlying picture here is an economy that is more resilient than most people predicted, inflation is coming down, real wages have been going up now for six months.“If we stick to our guns, independent forecasters say that by the early summer, we could start to see interest rates falling and that will be a very important relief for families with mortgages.” More

Sir Keir Starmer said he took “tough” and “decisive” action to withdraw support for Labour’s Rochdale by-election candidate, after a storm of criticism about remarks Azhar Ali made about Israel.The Labour leader insisted the party had “changed” under his leadership after it was confirmed on Monday (12 February) that Mr Ali, who is understood to be suspended pending an investigation, would have Labour’s backing withdrawn.Mr Ali had apologised after he was recorded in a meeting of the Lancashire Labour Party suggesting that Israel had taken the October 7 Hamas assault as a pretext to invade Gaza.Labour, however, said it moved to end its backing of the candidate “following new information about further comments”. More