By-election counts are the FA Cup ties of British politics.
Some go true to type, however many are tense, nail-biting, go deep into further time and supply upsets and shocks by political big killers.
Writer and broadcaster Iain Dale has revealed a weighty ebook, British By-elections: The 88 By-election Campaigns That Formed Our Politics.
Might Labour’s King of the North, soccer fanatic Andy Burnham, who’s tipped to return off the bench and contest Gorton and Denton in a by-election, be subsequent?
Burnham fuelled hypothesis a couple of Commons comeback when he stated in an interview on Thursday he had “by no means dominated out going again to Westminster”.
However up to now, present Gorton and Denton MP Andrew Gwynne goes nowhere, telling The Occasions he intends to serve a full time period.
“The path to No. 10 will not be going to be by means of Gorton and Denton,” he declared. Combating speak!
With chapters written by politicians, lecturers and journalists in his ebook, Dale claims his 88 are probably the most consequential by-elections of the fashionable period.
Now I am unable to declare to have coated 88 by-election counts for Sky Information. In spite of everything, the primary was in 1769 and 70 of the 88 within the ebook had been earlier than the twenty first century.
However I’ve coated 44, if I am not mistaken, beginning in 2003, and I am grateful for just a few mentions within the ebook, some flattering, some much less so. However there you go.
“There’s not often a boring by-election,” Dale writes in his preface. “Some by-elections tackle iconic standing and are remembered a number of a long time after they happen.
“Others rapidly disappear into the depths of our reminiscences, not often to be considered ever once more.”
Allies of Andy Burnham have launched a brand new marketing campaign group, Mainstream, calling on the federal government to introduce a wealth tax amongst different issues
The primary by-election I coated for Sky Information, in September 2003, was Brent East, which noticed a shock win for the Liberal Democrats over Labour.
The latest was Runcorn and Helsby, in Could this yr, when Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin was just six votes ahead of Labour after an all-nighter and a consequence at 6am.
When there is a recount, I’ve joked about VAR holding up the consequence. I even coated one by-election depend, Stretford and Urmston, on the Outdated Trafford soccer floor.
Over 22 years of protecting by-election counts I hope I’ve realized the methods of the commerce when the result’s on a knife-edge: One, look intently on the piles of poll papers; two, see which candidate has a victory speech of their hand or pocket.
Sarah Pochin received the Runcorn and Helsby by-election in 2025.
Pic: PA
However most vital, three, discover out what’s stated within the huddle when the returning officer calls the candidates and their brokers collectively to temporary them on the consequence forward of the declaration.
It might have been my first TV depend after greater than 20 years in newspapers, however lesson three served me properly at Brent East, as my former Sky Information colleague Joe Pike reveals in his chapter on Sarah Teather’s triumph.
“Jon Craig, Sky Information’ new signing, who would go on to broadcast from greater than 40 by-election counts, introduced Labour’s loss even earlier than the returning officer had stood up,” Pike writes.
“(Robert) Evans (Labour’s candidate) tipped him off that Labour had misplaced by 1,000 votes and Craig handed on the revelation on stay TV.”
Jon Craig on the Stretford and Urmston by-election depend in December 2023
Thanks, Joe. I might stored quiet about how I found the consequence till now.
A obtrusive omission from the ebook, in my view, is George Galloway’s upset in Bradford West in 2012.
When Sky Information arrived on the depend, everybody within the corridor was predicting a Labour win. However step by step the temper modified. I texted George: “Labour getting jitters right here, George! Say you are doing very properly. What do you assume?”
“Suppose I’ll win, Jon,” he replied immediately.
“Labour and Tory MPs assume so too,” I advised him. “Eager to get you on TV.” I referred to as him and urged him to return to the depend and declare victory.
And ‘Beautiful George’, by no means one to be shy or flip down publicity, duly obliged. He’d turned a Labour majority of almost 6,000 right into a victory for his Respect Celebration by greater than 10,000 votes, a swing of greater than 50%.
Richmond Park, in 2016, and Copeland, 2017, are within the ebook. My reminiscence of Richmond Park is chasing a really indignant Zac Goldsmith, the Tory Heathrow enlargement insurgent, across the depend after he misplaced to the Lib Dem Sarah Olney.
Hartlepool, in 2021, was a by-election that basically did tackle iconic standing. It was a uncommon Tory acquire, a victory for Boris Johnson within the Pink Wall and it threw the brand new Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer right into a panic.
He sacked his chief whip, Nick Brown, tried to demote his deputy, Angela Rayner. However that backfired, as she acquired much more titles. He is since admitted he thought of quitting.
The consequence got here at 7.10am, by which era an enormous inflatable Boris Johnson doll had been erected outdoors the depend. My post-results broadcasts had been from in entrance of that.
Members of Hartlepool’s enterprise group erected a 30-foot inflatable mannequin of Boris Johnson outdoors the depend in 2021. Pic: PA.
Oh, and on the Monday, again in Westminster, I examined constructive for COVID. Pink Wall COVID.
The second Batley and Spen by-election, later in 2021, noticed ‘Beautiful George’ try to repeat his Bradford West triumph. Tracy Brabin had succeeded the murdered Jo Cox in 2016 however had stop to turn into West Yorkshire mayor.
This time Kim Leadbeater, Jo’s sister and now the assisted dying crusader, was Labour’s candidate. Galloway was described by writer Emma Burnell within the ebook as “a serial candidate through the years, with various ranges of success”.
This “Pink Wall” conflict was, although, a basic knife-edge by-election, operating deep into further time, with Leadbeater squeezing home by 323 votes forward of the Tory candidate Ryan Stephenson. Cue VAR gags through the delays.
Votes being counted on the Batley and Spen by-election in 2021. Pic: PA
“On election night time, neither Labour nor the Conservatives had been assured of victory,” writes Burnell, editor of LabourList. “Cell phones had been banned from the depend and so a lot of the information the candidates had been receiving was by means of tv protection.
“At one level, Sky’s Jon Craig declared that the Tories had received and it was only a case of by how a lot. Nevertheless, Stephenson delights in telling the story of his getting into the depend later (now conscious of how the night time had gone) to overhear Craig asserting to the nation: ‘The loser, Mr Stephenson, has now arrived.’
“Leadbeater, in the meantime, had not ready her victory speech, satisfied as she was that she had misplaced.” My recollection, nevertheless, is totally different and I am certain she did have a speech. (Lesson two)
At Mid-Bedfordshire in 2023 after Nadine Dorries’ resignation, LBC radio’s Henry Riley recollects a tense count and writes: “The one temporary second of levity was when veteran by-election reporter-in-chief Jon Craig of Sky Information was introduced with a cake by the Excessive Sheriff of Bedfordshire, Russell Beard, to rejoice his fortieth by-election.”
Jon Craig celebrated protecting his fortieth by-election in Mid Bedfordshire in 2023.
From new signing to veteran in simply 20 years. It is a merciless world.
In Rochdale final yr, George Galloway was back. And this time he received by almost 6,000 votes and have become the primary MP elected to symbolize a fourth totally different Westminster constituency since Winston Churchill, Sunder Katwala tells us within the ebook.
George and I are previous comrades, going again to his days as a left-wing firebrand within the Labour Celebration. I used to be a contact embarrassed at Rochdale, nevertheless, when he stated throughout our post-result interview: “You got me lunch!”
Runcorn and Helsby was so shut – six votes – that the depend dragged on till 6am after a large recount. “Because the night time turned to morning, Labour workers regarded increasingly more nervous,” writes ITV’s Harry Horton within the ebook.
“Reform’s staff appeared nervous. At one level, a Reform aide instructed photographers to assemble on the door for the arrival of Nigel Farage.
“One broadcaster claimed he’d seen the Reform leaders circling the automobile park outdoors however had pushed off when it appeared Labour may sneak a win. Farage later denied something of the type had ever occurred.”
Nigel Farage with Sarah Pochin after she received the Runcorn and Helsby by-election
Effectively, because the “one broadcaster” referred to by Harry, there was certainly a automobile circling the automobile park. However, admittedly, it was darkish! All of us make errors.
There have been just a few blunders. At one depend, not lengthy after she turned an MP, I mistook Angela Rayner for Jess Phillips. Thankfully, she advised me she was flattered. No matter occurred to her?
So the place subsequent on the by-election fixture checklist? Will Andy Burnham contest Gwyne’s seat previous to difficult Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour captaincy?
With Reform UK the challengers in Gorton and Denton, that is a by-election that could possibly be one for VAR.
