The greens have done it, and by a great majority too. Absolutely smashed the poll predictions.
Looking forward to seeing the break down of results by area after all the conversations in the run-up.
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The conservatives lose the deposit as well so no splitting of the reform vote that was maybe suggested.
Given it was such a Labour majority, I think this is the outcome most would have expected, Labour > Reform feels like a large ideological swing.
Interesting comments coming out about family voting - is this a cultural thing?
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Not as much as you would think, those old red wall seats have leaned through Brexit that you can vote for whoever the hell you want.
This is however very much a message to Labour of âwe arenât happyâ whilst also saying to Reform ânahâ.
I wouldnât want this replicated at a General Election, I think the Greens would be as bad for the country as Reform, just in a different way. But for a by-election itâs not a bad result to stick it to the rest of them.
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Sad to see such a low vote for the Lib Dems, but they had a non-existent social media presence, so it doesnât surprise me. The press was just full of Matt Goodwin and Hannah Spencer, with a small sprinkling of Angelika Stogia
seconded
the mainstream media were reporting so much about Reform coming from behind it made the Greens look like a darkhorse everyone forgot about (as Reform winning makes for a major headline - and now it makes for a headline they didnât win)
Nigel the Nazi is saying it was stolen and cheatedâŚ.sigh, where have we heard this before
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I suspect the Parliamentary Labour Party are about to experience quite a significant trough.
The strategy that Starmer has spearheaded so far is to try to see off the threat from the far right, consequently almost ignoring the wants of left-leaning Brits. The win overnight for the Greens demonstrates what happens when the left no longer feel they can vote for Labour.
I already thought that the local elections in May would be a bloodbath for Labour; that now seems inevitable. @Adminvortex and I disagree on quite a lot of political points, but where we do agree is that Starmer wonât be PM for much longer.
The danger is that any lurch to the left will alienate voters like myself that could be stolen from the Conservatives. I donât like Kemi, but I like Corbynist politics even less (and donât even mention that melt Burnham).
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Letâs be honest, it would be more of a lurch towards the centre.
Labour has been the centrist and mid-leftâs best chance at something they considered âmore reasonableâ as a least-worst option.
If they donât believe in Labour, then their options are Lib Dem or Green, which is geographically dependent (and on how much the Dems fight for it).
Itâs the mirror of the slight to mid right jumping from Labour and Cons to Reform and a continuation of the growing polarisation of politics.
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Voting in the UK is much more transparent, all paper ballots, access to the counts for party officials who can make notes of the different piles of votes and work out how the vote is going.
For Farage to cast aspersion like that just shows the calibre of the man.
The sooner people see through him the better. That is the second by-election (Caerphilly) that Reform have blown it. Perhaps things are falling apart for Reform. We live i hope.
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There are reports of âFamilyâ voting of about 12% as seen by official observers at various polling stations. Family voting is where more than one person goes into the polling booth so there is suspicion of pressure or coercion to vote a particular way. I suspect this is the basis for Nigelâs complaints!
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According to the BBC Breakfast this morning, nothing was reported during the pole, only after and no reports were made by poling staff.
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Pretty sure when I lived with my parents the whole family voted the same way. I appreciate going into the voting booth is different but then that would be up to the volunteers to police and manage and not just âofficial observersâ to see (but apparently not so anything about.
Itâs calculated badly. Itâs actually 6% of potential influenced, and 6%influencing. Plus even if it was 12%, and they all voted green, if you take them away, the greens would have still won by loads.
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A mother & toddler going into a booth together would be counted as family voting in that case.
I wonder, if this 12% ever actually existed, how much of it was parents & children?
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And itâs also big islamic families being the problem.
The problem is their bubble has burst and people are seeing them for whom they are
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The whole âMuslim voteâ rhetoric from Reform is hilarious.
They try to portray Muslims as an homogenous group who hate Western culture and only want to vote for pro-Muslim concepts. Now theyâre trying to say that that voting block shunned Reform and instead voted for a party led by a gay JewâŚ
They really havenât thought the optics of that messaging through, have they?
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Just because it makes no sense, doesnât mean it doesnât happen (like âGays for Palestineâ, for example).
Incredibly disappointed in the Conservative and Reform attack narrative generating further sectarian divide in the country.
And from Labour for deliberately misrepresenting Green policies.
This stuff, especially the election-denying stuff, needs treating severely in a court of law and needs to be made illegal if it isnât.
The bare minimum of decorum should be not making baseless statements about election integrity (when you lose) and not lying about the opposition.
The cost is too great. We simply cannot have the system undermined like itâs Trumpâs USA.
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I love that these supposed claims of family voting have been jumped on by Reform as though it may mean they were all Muslims pressuring family to vote Green.
I see just as much chance of it happening within certain hard-right types too. If not more likely.
Plus the numbers recorded will also include couple who just go and vote together, no pressure from either side. I voted with my mum once, thatâd have counted 
The thinking that this 12% was all for Green is a bit daft. And as I said further up, it wouldnât have changed the outcome even if it was.
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