Labour win the Oldham West and Royton by-election

Labour has held on to a seat in the Oldham West and Royton by-election. Their share is up 7% from 55% to 62%. Turnout was low at around 40%. As expected, UKIP were the main challenger, but they only managed to increase their share of the vote by 3% to 23%. There was a 2% swing from UKIP to Labour.

The Conservatives were down from 19% to 9%. You would expect a governing party to take a hit like that. The Liberal Democrats stayed exactly where they were in May at 4% and the Green Party were down from 2% to 1%. I suspect these lost voters voted tactically for either Labour or UKIP, not that they needed to.

Before anyone gets excited about how well Labour has done, they should remember that Oldham West and Royton (previously Oldham West) has been Labour held since 1950, although it did go Conservative at the 1968 by-election. There is also a large Asian demographic (approximately 1 in 3 people) who tend to support Labour. It really is no surprise that Labour held this seat.