Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (right) embraces newly elected member of parliament for Oldham West and Royton, Jim McMahon, outside Chadderton Town Hall in Chadderton, Oldham, northwest England yesterday.

Reuters
Oldham


Britain’s opposition Labour Party held on to a parliamentary seat in northern England on Thursday with an increased share of the vote, a relief to the party’s new leader, Jeremy Corbyn, in his first electoral test.
Left-winger Corbyn has split Labour since his election as leader less than three months ago, prompting infighting that threatens to tear the party apart.
Labour won the vote in Oldham West and Royton, triggered by the death of the incumbent lawmaker, with 17,209 votes, or 62%. Its main challenger, the anti-European Union United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip), came second, with its 6,487 votes representing almost a quarter of those cast.
Corbyn hailed the result, which was better than many pundits had predicted, as a “vote of confidence” in Labour.
“It’s a clear demonstration that Labour is the party working people trust,” he said in a statement. “This first electoral test in the new parliament has made clear Labour is the real alternative for Britain.”
“It shows just how strong, how deep-rooted and how broad our party, the Labour Party, is for the whole of Britain,” Corbyn said yesterday in Oldham.
The newly elected lawmaker, Jim McMahon, fought a very local campaign — with little mention of Corbyn — focusing instead on his four years leading the local council in what some said was a move to distance himself from Labour turmoil in London.
Labour has held the former industrial town outside Manchester for decades and in May’s national election won it with a majority of more than 14,000.
While its majority slipped to 10,722 on Thursday this was in large part due to a lower turnout, at 40%, and the party increased its share of the vote by more than seven percentage points from May.
Political scientist John Curtice said Labour’s win was “nothing exceptional”, adding that the rise in its share of the vote was in line with by-election increases during the last parliament in 2010-2015.
During the campaign, Ukip targeted voters disaffected with politics and concerned about immigration and jobs. It also sought to highlight Labour’s lack of unity on security, warning that Corbyn’s pacifism would leave Britain undefended from attacks by Syria-based Islamic State militants.
“No doubt, there is a white working class disaffected vote there which is what Ukip is picking up, but given that 30% of people (in the constituency) are ethnic minorities, inevitably there is a limit to what (Ukip) could hope to achieve,” Curtice said.
Voting in Oldham took place a day after 66 Labour lawmakers, including some in his senior team, rebelled against Corbyn to back the government on extending British air strikes to Syria. Ukip questioned the legitimacy of the postal votes following their defeat, with party leader Nigel Farage describing the result as “perverse” on Twitter.
Because postal votes are cast at home, vote anonymity can be compromised and there have been previous instances in Britain of people ‘harvesting’ unused postal votes to fill in, although signature checks have been introduced to tackle this. Prime Minister David Cameron’s ruling Conservatives trailed in third place in Oldham, as had been expected in a constituency where they lack strong appeal.