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It was a wafer-thin victory, but a huge win.

The symbolism of Labour taking the West Midlands mayor, a jewel in the Tory crown, could be felt in the room as Labour activists gathered in Birmingham to celebrate the win with their new mayor Richard Parker and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

There are moments on election journeys when the momentum shifts – and this win felt like one of them.

“We humbly asked [the voters] to put their trust and confidence in a changed Labour Party and they did. And that is a significant piece of political history that we’ve made here today,” said Sir Keir at his victory rally.

“So the message out of these elections, the last now the last stop before we go into that general election, is that the country wants change.

“I hope the prime minister is listening and gives the opportunity to the country to vote as a whole in a general election as soon as possible.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer celebrates with the new West Midlands mayor Richard Parker. Pic: PA / Jacob King
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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer celebrates with the new West Midlands mayor Richard Parker. Pic: PA / Jacob King

This win gave them the boost that was missing when they won the Blackpool South by-election on a massive 26-point swing, but then failed to pick up the hundreds of council seats they were chasing.

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This win, on just 1,508 votes or 0.25 per cent of the vote, was a body blow for a Conservative party that believed they could just about cling on. Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor, is now the last Tory standing.

For Labour, then a moment to bookmark.

Andy Street after losing the mayoral race for the West Midlands. Pic: PA / Jacob King
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Andy Street after losing the mayoral race for the West Midlands. Pic: PA / Jacob King

Just as Boris Johnson’s Hartlepool by-election win in 2021 was a low point for Sir Keir – he told me this week that he considered resigning over the loss because he thought it showed he was the barrier to Labour’s recovery – this too will feel devastating not just for Andy Street but for the PM too.

Labour has beaten him in a street fight. He’s bloodied with Sir Keir now emboldened.

“This was the one result we really needed,” said one senior Labour figure. “It’s been our top focus for the past week and symbolically a very important win.”

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Analysis of local election and mayoral results

And Labour needed the boost, because, as Professor Michael Thrasher pointed out in his Sky News’ national vote share projection calculated from the local election results, Sir Keir was not picking up the sort of vote share that Tony Blair was winning in the run-up to the 1997 Labour landslide.

His latest calculation of a 35% vote share for Labour and 26% for the Tories, put Sir Keir winning a general election but short of a majority.

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What the West Midlands mayoral win did for Sir Keir was to give him a clear narrative that he is coming for the Tories and will do what he needs to take them down.

It raises inevitable questions about what is next for Rishi Sunak. The prime minister had nowhere to go today, not one win to celebrate. The worst performance in council elections in 40 years, was already pretty much as bad as it gets before the loss of Andy Street. The former Conservative mayor was magnanimous towards the prime minister, saying the loss was his alone.

Defeated Andy Street followed by victor Richard Parker. Pic: PA / Jacob King
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Defeated Andy Street followed by victor Richard Parker. Pic: PA / Jacob King

But colleagues will not be so generous. One former cabinet minister said this loss was “devastating”. “We’re done and there’s no appetite to move against him,” said the senior MP. Many Tories tell me they are now resigned to defeat and believe Mr Sunak and his team needed to own it, rather than the rest of the party.

The coming days might be bumpy, the mood will be stony. But Tories tell me not much will actually change for them.

For Sir Keir, he now needs to sell not the changed Labour Party, but his vision for changing the country. The West Mids mayor’s win was dazzling, but it could have so easily gone the other way. And as Mr Sunak fights to survive, Labour still has to fight hard to win.

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Roger Ver moves to dismiss US tax evasion charges as ‘unconstitutional’

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Roger Ver moves to dismiss US tax evasion charges as ‘unconstitutional’

Roger Ver argued that the IRS’ exit tax for renounced US citizens with over $2 million in assets is unconstitutional and “impermissibly vague.”

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Russia sentences Hydra market founder to life in prison

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Russia sentences Hydra market founder to life in prison

Hydra market founder Stanislav Moiseev and 15 of his accomplices were jailed for between 8 and 23 years for their involvement in the darknet market and crypto mixer.

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‘It doesn’t matter’: Reform deputy dismisses court records that say MP kicked his girlfriend

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'It doesn't matter': Reform deputy dismisses court records that say MP kicked his girlfriend

Richard Tice has been challenged for appearing to cast doubt on court documents that detailed how one of the party’s MPs was jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend.

The Reform UK deputy leader defended James McMurdock, who was jailed 18 years ago for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend, saying the UK is a “Christian nation” that believes in “redemption”.

Speaking to the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Mr Tice said he did not believe Mr McMurdock, the party’s MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, should be “doomed as a sinner forever”.

Mr McMurdock, a former investment banker, was convicted of assaulting his then girlfriend in 2006 while drunk outside a nightclub.

He spent 21 days in a young offenders’ institution after admitting to the attack.

Before he was elected as an MP, the investment banker had not publicly disclosed the conviction and when it emerged in July he had been jailed for attacking his girlfriend when he was 19 years old, he downplayed the incident as a “teenage indiscretion”.

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But further details of what happened during the incident emerged after The Times applied to the court for information from the official record, which showed he received the custodial sentence for “kicking” the victim “around four times”.

James McMurdock arrives at the House of Commons.
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James McMurdock. Pic: PA

Mr Tice said his colleague was an example of someone who “had a bad issue at a very young age but has gone full circle”.

He said the UK was a “great Christian nation” and added: “Are you seriously saying that if someone makes a bad mistake in life, aged 19, that there’s no redemption they are doomed as a sinner forever? No.”

He went on: “The whole point of Christianity is a sense of if you’ve done something wrong, you pay your price. And at the end of that sentence, whatever it is, then, in a sense you’ve done your bit, you served your punishment, whatever it is.

“Isn’t it remarkable that an individual had I, you know, had a bad issue at a very young age but has gone full circle.

“Doesn’t it show, actually, to other young people that bad stuff can happen – you can make bad judgements, you can get things badly wrong. But many years later, actually you can you can do really well.

“He had a great job and end up as a member of parliament. I think that’s a good thing.”

MPs do not have to disclose previous convictions to the public when standing, with only people in prison at the time of the election for a sentence of more than a year barred.

McMurdock’s victim’s mother brought the incident to light a week after his election, saying he “left marks on her body” and “it took two security guards to pull him off her”.

When the allegations were revealed, McMurdock said the pair had argued and he had pushed her.

Challenged on whether there had been a “major discrepancy” between Mr McMurdock’s version of events and what had been reported, Mr Tice replied that his “understanding” of the incident was “different” to what The Times said had happened.

Pressed on what he believed happened, Mr Tice replied: “It actually doesn’t matter.”

“I’m trusting James,” he said.

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“He’s bang on the money and I think that what he says is right. He was there. The court wasn’t there. The Times weren’t there.

“The law is the law. The law ruled that he had transgressed and he was punished. He served his punishment.”

When the allegations emerged, Mr McMurdock told Sky News the incident was “the biggest regret of my life”.

He said: “While I absolutely deny the horrific details in this tale, there is one truth in it that I cannot, nor will not deny or hide from.

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“A generous person might call it a teenage indiscretion but I do not expect everyone to be so kind.

“Nearly 20 years ago, at 19 years of age, at the end of a night out together, we argued and I pushed her. She fell over and she was hurt. Despite being 38 now and having lived a whole life again I still feel deeply ashamed and apologetic.

“Despite us both being very drunk, I handed myself into the police immediately and admitted my fault. I was charged for what I did, not for what has been claimed, and I faced the consequences then and paid for my action in full.

“This is the biggest regret of my life and I wish I could go back in time and fix things.”

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