Keir Starmer joins celebrations as Labour takes Mid Bedfordshire seat from Conservatives

After the by-election victories in Mid Beds and Tamworth, the changed Labour Party can go and win seats anywhere in the country, its leader has said.

Sir Keir Starmer joined up with Mid Bedfordshire’s new MP, Alistair Strathern, at the The Forest Centre, Marston Moretaine this morning (October 20) to celebrate with party activists.

“This was such a hard fight, it was such a big majority [to overcome] it was a three-way fight,” Sir Keir Starmer said.

“Every single conversation, every voter that you persuaded to come across to us was work that you’ve done on behalf of this constituency for a better future.

“An incredible morning and an incredible result here for so many reasons.

“It is clear that the voters here have turned their back on a failed Tory government.

“They’ve had enough of the decline of the last 13 years and they are crying out for change,” he said.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Sir Keir how much of the victory in Mid Beds was down to Strathern as a person rather than Labour as a party.

Sir Keir said: “I think if you look at by-elections they’re always about the candidate and the party.

“We had an excellent candidate and the more people saw of him the more they liked him and invested their trust and confidence in him.

“But they also invested their trust and confidence in a changed Labour Party.

“And it wasn’t just here that we won yesterday, it was in Tamworth as well, and not so long ago we were winning in Selby in Yorkshire, and of course just a few weeks ago in Rutherglen in Scotland.

“So it’s a combination of an excellent candidate, now MP, and a changed Labour Party.

“What is significant, I think, is that it’s not just Labour voters that voted for Labour yesterday, there are Tory voters who are despairing at their own party, who now see the country that they want us to be with a changed Labour Party.”