The votes are now being counted for all 16 candidates, including Kim Leadbeater, sister of slain MP Jo Cox, who defends the 3,525 majority for Labor, and Ryan Stephenson, the Leeds councilman who is the Conservative candidate.
Chances of Ms Leadbeater holding Sir Keir Starmer’s party seat dwindled after controversial former Bradford MP George Galloway entered the race for his own Workers’ Party.
Galloway, who was seen campaigning around Batley in an open-top bus with England’s soccer anthem ‘Three Lions’ on Thursday, has previously said he wants to win over Labor voters to the seat to oust Sir Keir from the leadership.
Labor MP Naz Shah, who toppled Galloway in Bradford West in 2015, said the campaign had highlighted the “evil” and “misogyny” of his politics.
Tensions between the Galloway Workers ‘Party and Labor supporters made the campaign increasingly bitter, with the most controversial arguments centered on the parties’ stance on international issues, including Kashmir and Palestine, as they struggled to secure votes in the various Asian communities in the area.
Labor activists have alleged that they were thrown eggs and kicked in the head during the campaign over the weekend.
Shadow Communities Minister Ms Shah told The Yorkshire Post: “It’s like a circus in the city, and the circus act is really very popular, the circus doesn’t stay long, he will carry on. , what it does is its trademark. I don’t expect anything different here. “
Ms Shah described the policy as “deeper than” taking “a lot of people in a convertible bus because the weather is really nice.”
She said: “Batley and Spen deserve the best.
“Batley and Spen deserve a person who is from there, from the people for the people and that is what we will get from Kim Leadbeater if she is elected in the morning.”
“People have seen that he has really exposed some of the misogyny, some of the evil that comes with the character in the city, I think that is what has been exposed,” he added later.
Ms Leadbeater told The Yorkshire Post on Monday that “I was just going to get over the unacceptable behavior and try to be as positive as possible.”
The Batley and Spen poll began in May when Labor Tracy Brabin retired to become mayor of West Yorkshire.
Bookmakers have Stephenson as the favorite to fill the Conservatives’ seat for the first time since 1997, but it has been reported that Labor leader Sir Keir will not retire if the party loses this third consecutive by-election.
Sir Keir’s spokesman previously insisted that he is on a “four-year road” to bring the party back to power and that he would not step down if he saw another electoral defeat.
Labor lost Hartlepool in its traditional territories to the Tories in May and also fared poorly in the Chesham and Amersham by-elections.
The full list of candidates at Batley and Spen is: Paul Bickerdike (Christian Peoples Alliance); Mike Davies (Alliance for Green Socialism); Jayda Fransen (independent); George Galloway (Workers Party); Tom Gordon (Lib Dems); Therese Hirst (English Democrats); Howling Laud Hope (the official crazy monster raving party); Susan Laird (Heritage Festival); Kim Leadbeater (Labor); Oliver Purser (Social Democratic Party); Corey Robinson (Yorkshire Party); Andrew Smith (to rejoin the EU); Ryan Stephenson (conservatives); Jack Thomson (UK); Jonathan Tilt (Alliance for Freedom); Anne Marie Waters (The For Britain Movement).
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Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-07-01 22:30:24
