Vote counting continues in the Wellingborough by-election

Counting continues in the Wellingborough by-election, a contest triggered after a recall petition in the Northamptonshire constituency.

The petition was prompted by Peter Bone’s suspension from the House of Commons for six weeks for breaching the code of conduct for MPs.

Voter turnout was 38.1%, down from 64.3% at the 2019 General Election.

The count is taking place at Kettering Conference Centre and a result is expected in the early hours.

Constituents needed photo ID in order to vote after a change in the law last year.

Candidates have been arriving at the conference centre where about 90 counters are verifying ballot papers.

Chesterfield’s Labour MP Toby Perkins, who is at the Wellingborough count, said his party was feeling confident in Wellingborough.

He said: “Any win would be remarkable, [it is] too early to have a final result but [we] like our chances.”

The Liberal Democrat candidate Ana Savage Gunn says she might have lost her deposit.

Candidates lose their £500 deposit if they fail to secure more than 5% of the vote.

“It’ll be close”, Ms Savage Gunn told Laura Coffey, the BBC’s political reporter for Northamptonshire.

The party came third in the constituency in 2019 with 7.9% of the vote.

Andrew Sinclair, BBC East political editor

The Wellingborough election is taking place in a politically fascinating area of the country at a politically fascinating time.

Wellingborough lies in the middle of the M1/A1 corridor. Home to a group of voters, who are sometimes referred to as “aspirational” and middle England”, they are people who have worked hard to better themselves and their families, they probably own their own home and they may have moved out of London, or one of the large cities (where they may still work), for a better way of life.

These people are typical “swing voters” who often reflect the political mood of the country.

The area is full of constituencies which swung to Labour in 1997, and then slowly move back to the Conservatives – places like Kettering, Corby, Northampton and Milton Keynes.

Wellingborough is only 30 miles (48km) from Mid Bedfordshire where Labour recently overturned a 24,600 Conservative majority.

If they can do the same tonight, it will be seen as further evidence that aspirational England is on the move.

If the Conservatives can hold on, it will give them hope in a general election year.

Reform UK’s leader Richard Tice is at the Wellingborough count, where he hopes his party will make gains.

He told the BBC early indications are that his party will have its “best every by-election results” between the votes in Wellingborough and Kingswood in Bristol.

The party’s candidate Ben Habib said he believes the party has got its “profile up” and its “share of the vote will be significantly higher than the previous by-election”.

The eleven candidates (in alphabetical order) are:

• Nick the Flying Brick – The Official Monster Raving Loony Party
• Ana Savage Gunn – Liberal Democrat
• Ben Habib – Reform UK
• Helen Harrison – Conservative
• Ankit Love Jknpp Jay Mala Post-Mortem – Independent
• Gen Kitchen – Labour
• Alex Merola – Britain First
• Will Morris – Green Party
• Andre Pyne-Bailey – Independent
• Marion Turner-Hawes – Independent
• Kevin Watts – Independent

Labour overturned a Conservative majority of more than 11,000 to win the Kingswood by-election with a majority of more than 2,000.

Conservatives came second, with Reform beating the Green Party to the spot for third place.

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