Bately and Spen: the result

 Labour:                13 296    35.3%

Conservative        12 973    34.4%

G Galloway            8 264    21.9%

Liberal Dem         1 254      3.3%

12 others              1 898

As explained in the previous post, a Tory win would have been regarded as an endorsement of  Mr Johnson's untruthful, self serving and incompetent govenmt, so this Labour win promotes a sigh of relief.  Congratulations to our new MP, Kim Leadbeater.

So far  (06h42)  the comments on the news bulletins I've heard have concentrate on the narrowness of the Labour majority.  More significant, I think, is the smallness, 34.4%, of the Conservative share  of the vote in an  election they were widely predicted to win.

it's a fair bet that most of spoiler George Galloway's vote, let's say two thirds, would without him have gone to Labour, which would have had the Labour vote pushing 20 000, and a substantial majority..

The Liberal vote is derisory but not quite so small as the Labour vote in Chesham and Amersham, (622, 1.6%,) which is some consolation.  Clearly Labour voters in that election and Liberal Democrat voters in this have voted tactically for their second choices, effectively supporting the "progressive alliance" our leaders are so reluctant to create formally.