A night of high drama: Relief for Starmer as his prayers are answered in Batley and Spen

At the start of a long night in Cathedral House, home of the town’s Christian Fellowship, most people at the Batley and Spen count assumed Sir Keir Starmer didn’t have a prayer.

Bookies and pollsters were predicting a Conservative victory, which would have led to demands from his left-wing critics for Sir Keir‘s resignation or a leadership challenge.

But at around 5.20am, after a night of high drama, anger, controversy, nail-biting tension and emotion, the pressure on the embattled Labour leader was lifted – for now – when Kim Leadbeater was declared the winner by a majority of just 323 votes.

Okay, so Labour‘s majority was down from the 3,525 won by former Coronation Street actress Tracy Brabin at the December 2019 general election. But so what? A win is a win.

Plenty of by-elections are won with small majorities. But all that matters is who wins. In politics, as in sport and many other contests, there are no prizes for coming second.

The by-election count was in Huddersfield, 18 miles from Batley, because that’s where Kirklees Council holds its election counts. Cathedral House is a good venue, too.

Outside Huddersfield’s magnificent railway station there’s a statue of the town’s most famous son, who won four general elections for Labour. There’s also a pub – The Lord Wilson – named after him a few streets away.

For Labour’s current leader, however, on his record so far there’s little chance of earning a statue or a pub being named after him. Perhaps Batley and Spen will be a turning point? Or maybe not.

This gruelling, draining night began with Ms Leadbeater, whose sister Jo Cox was murdered five years ago, angrily hitting out in a tweet at “acts of intimidation and violence” during the campaign.

Whose supporters could she possibly have been referring to?

In his close-of-polls tweet, George Galloway declared: “One thing is certain: It’s curtains for Keir.”

Well, after this result, the curtain isn’t about to come down on Sir Keir’s leadership of the Labour Party just yet.

One poll had suggested the Tories would win 47% and Labour 41% – and one bookmaker had Mr Galloway coming second and Labour third.

In an interview with Sky News at 2am, Tory MP Andrew Jones claimed the result was “too close to call”. It sounded like clever spin.

But then came the drama and the tension, as the relative sizes of the piles of votes on the tables in the hall began to confirm the result was indeed closer than had been widely predicted.

As a declaration grew nearer, there was still no sign of the three leading candidates, Ms Leadbeater, her Tory opponent Ryan Stephenson and Mr Galloway, in the hall.

Where were they? It turned out the Labour and Conservative candidates were outside in the car park, being briefed by their teams on what was going on inside.

And what was going on inside was a “bundle count”, a new piece of political jargon, which essentially means a speeded up recount without the need to count every vote again.

We learned that it was the Conservatives who had asked for the “bundle count”. That was a surprise, since it meant they must be behind Labour.

Then, just as it reached Sky News that Labour might be about 300 votes ahead of the Conservatives, came word of a second “bundle count”.

The tension inside the hall at this point was electrifying. You could hear a pin drop as scrutineers and supporters of all the parties waited for news.

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Tories in blue suits paced up and down. Labour gents in red ties scurried from one vote-laden table to another. And eventually the declaration came and the Sky News tip of a 300 or so Labour majority was confirmed.

As the candidates walked on to the stage, Ms Leadbeater was carrying a piece of paper that was clearly a victory speech. Mr Stephenson had no piece of paper.

The speech, when she delivered it, was humble and emotional at the same time. No clichéd party slogans written by a spin doctor. Just another attack on her tormentors as she said she had needed the police “more than ever” during the campaign.

But while Ms Leadbeater was humble, Mr Galloway was fuming and stormed out of the hall to announce he planned to challenge the result in the courts.

Now, though, it’s the left-wing fedora-wearing firebrand who hasn’t got a prayer. He lost, fair and square. Get over it, George.

Tory MPs will complain that their campaign was too complacent and their party has missed an opportunity to inflict more grief on Sir Keir. Conservative sources rather churlishly reacted to the defeat by claiming it wasn’t a Labour win, it was a Labour hold.

Labour MPs will give Ms Leadbeater a tumultuous welcome in Westminster on Monday. Surely she will choose to sit in front of the plaque in her sister’s honour on the wall at the back of the opposition benches.

In Sir Keir’s inner circle, the mood will be one of relief, however. The Labour leader has had a lucky escape this time.

Within the past two months, British politics has been turned upside down with three sensational results in parliamentary by-elections.

First the Tory triumph in Labour’s “Red Wall” seat of Hartlepool on 6 May, then the wholly unexpected Liberal Democrat victory in true-blue Chesham and Amersham two weeks ago and now a Labour win against the odds in Batley and Spen.

After two terrible by-election results for Labour, inside Cathedral House in Huddersfield Sir Keir’s prayers were answered.

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