The Conservatives were never going to win the Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election. But the way the party has spun its third place is slightly depressing. The Times today quotes a party source saying:
‘This is a safe Labour seat with the largest council estate in Europe. It’s not on our marginal list.’
Now, this is an understandably pragmatic way of viewing a by-election. It wasn’t expected, as it was prompted by the tragic and untimely death of a respected Labour MP, Paul Goggins. So the Conservatives were not embedded in the constituency in the way that they were in Eastleigh, for instance. Labour moved the writ for a short by-election campaign, which also meant that Ukip didn’t have as much time to make its case, particularly to postal voters, as it would have liked. The same applied to the Tories, but they coupled that slow start with an uninspiring campaign.
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