Labour lost two recent Council by elections in Burnley (4th November) Is this a concerning omen for the Labour Party

[Mitochondriapowerhouse]

AIBU in thinking this is the shape of things to come in elections in May 2026? Why isn’t this being mentioned in the press as is very worrying for the Labour party

Yes! Because they won’t just be honest and say that this fucking mess the Tories made of our country over 14 years is going to take a LONG time to fix!
Lay out their plans and stop bloody parroting reform! This is losing votes rapidly and the racist twats won’t vote for them anyway.

Oh and sack the comms team too Keir! FFS 🙄🙄🙄

Probably because in the grand rankings of bad omens for the Labour party this doesn't make the top ten this week.

Yes for most parties in power this would be crap, but Labour have got so much more shit going on to worry about first.

@StrongLikeMamma yes I think a bit of honesty is required but politicians don’t seem very good at that!

@Dacatspjs it’s shocking really isn’t it? I voted for them and I feel very disappointed so far

I wonder if no one is noticing these results as it’s a northern town which slips under the radar of most people

They are deeply hated so of course noone sensible will be voting for them locally.

They have said nothing but, continually of a profession that can never take responsibility and admit they are wrong this lot have won the World Cup.

I will not vote Labour again because they cannot take responsibility Rachel reeves blaming everything but her when she needs to take responsibility for her last budget is childish and pathetic.

I have been a lifelong Labour voter with one brief side step to the greens but I will not be voting Labour again while Keir is leader and they sort their shit out, which may be never……..

I’m also a lifelong labour supporter but won’t vote for them again

I notice it was an extremely low voting turnout (27%) I wonder if people are now totally apathetic

Here we go again.

There are rather a lot of people in Burnley predisposed towards Reform I think.

@ilovesooty oh sorry, I didn’t realise there are already threads about the Burnley elections

@ilovesooty there we’re only a total of 510 votes for he Reform candidate. Burnley has always been predominantly Labour

Yes, I think it is.

No, you are not BU.

@Polaris81 i know! I’m just wondering why it’s not being flagged up in the press

These aren't parliamentary by-elections for MPs and they're not even County Council elections - this is a second tier borough council election and these are never picked up by the national media. Mainly because a) they happen all the time and b) unless they mean a change of council overall control they're not very interesting.

It's wrong to say it hasn't been picked up by the media at all though, as I can see the local press have reported on it as they usually would.

Is it indicative of a national swing to Independents? From the looks of it, not really (aside from the fall in the Labour vote share). I don't think Independents beating Reform into second place is what we're going to see nationally. While it's certainly not great news for Labour; borough council elections are also never truly indicative of how people would vote in a general election.

There’s a bunch of racist flag shaggers in a small northern town? Hardly news is it?

@StrongLikeMamma Burnley (my birth town hence my interest ) has had a long history of having a Labour stronghold for many decades so I’m wondering why they are losing popularity now.

@StrongLikeMamma as far as I know it’s definitely not “far right racist flag shaggers” that have influenced the vote in Burnley

I haven't forgotten the "White Lives Matter" banner that was flown by a helicopter over the football club.

Labour are absolutely in trouble. Life long Labour voter, I wanted to vote Green last time but was desperate to remove my Conservative MP so went with Labour.

They've alienated those on the left and more centrist voters. Honestly not sure who their voting base would be now.

@Iwantitidontwantit I agree, they are dividing the country. I’ve no idea who I’d vote for now. I’ve always voted Labour

for a council by-election 27% seems par for for the course. Turnout in the local council elections back in May weren’t much higher at about 32% overall.

"Why isn't this being mentioned in the press?" Are you for real? It's labour bashing all day long, except when it's immigrants or socialists popping up elsewhere.

Correct 💯. Put a human being in front of a camera. Some one who can tell the truth using plain speech and don't sugar coat it. Ditch all the focus group cobblers. Keep it simple , stupid . KISS for short. And repeat it for the hard of thinking. When you do something good you must shout it out very loud too. Because the right wing media sure as hell won't. They have already anointed Farage as the next PM.
Raise taxes fairly. Build houses. The end.