UK's Labour claims big early win over Conservatives

STORY: Blackpool South was the only parliamentary seat up for grabs after the Conservative lawmaker quit over a lobbying scandal.

Labour candidate Chris Webb won the Blackpool election with 10,825 votes. The Conservative candidate came in second with 3,218. The swing of 26% to Labour from the 2019 result was the third biggest in post-war by-election history, polling expert John Curtice said.

The defeat in Blackpool and early signs of deep losses at the council level will boost Labour's hopes for a sweeping victory over Sunak's Conservatives in the national election.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the Blackpool result was a message sent directly to Sunak that Britain was "fed up with your decline, your chaos and your division, and we want change".