Keir Starmer refuses to comment as he leaves home after humiliating defeat
Keir Starmer refused to comment on Labour’s crushing by-election defeat as he left his home this morning.
The Labour leader is facing fierce backlash after the Tories took Hartlepool for the first time since the seat was created in 1974.
The Conservatives have officially smashed yet another brick in the once impregnable red wall after Jill Mortimer defeated Dr Paul Williams by 6,940 votes just after 7am on Friday.
Mr Starmer didn’t stop for reporters as he was filmed by the BBC leaving his house in north London after the results were called.
The loss has provoked a furious reaction from the Labour left who have demanded the party change direction.
Former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott tweeted: ‘Not possible to blame Jeremy Corbyn for this result. Labour won the seat twice under his leadership. Keir Starmer must think again about his strategy.’
Shadow communities secretary Steve Reed has admitted it is an ‘absolutely shattering’ result – but says the party must double down on the more centrist approach taken over the past year.
He told BBC Breakfast: ‘What this shows is that, although we have started to change since the cataclysm of the last general election, that change has clearly not gone far enough in order to win back the trust of the voters.’
The first-ever Conservative victory in Hartlepool has been named a ‘truly historic result’.
Swinging at Labour in her victory speech, Ms Mortimer claimed the party had ‘taken people in Hartlepool for granted for too long’.
She said: ‘I am incredibly proud of the campaign my team and I have run in Hartlepool – it is based on local issues of real concern to the community here, and I would like to thank all of the people of this great town who have responded so positively to it.
‘I’m also immensely proud to be the first Conservative MP in Hartlepool for 57 years.
‘Not only that, I am the first woman ever to be elected as MP for this town. It is a truly historic result and a momentous day. Labour have taken people in Hartlepool for granted for too long.
‘I heard this time and time again on the doorstep and people have had enough and now, through this result, the people have spoken and have made it clear it is time for change.’
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