Labour rejects calls for voting pact with Lib Dems after by-election defeat

Labour have rejected calls for an electoral pact after the party slumped to its worst by-election result since the Second World War.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party received only 622 votes, or 1.6 per cent of the total, in Chesham and Amersham, losing their deposit. They were nudged into fourth place by the Green Party, which won 1,480 votes, or 3.9 per cent.

The Liberal Democrat surge to victory was undoubtedly fuelled by defections from people who usually vote Labour — at the 2019 election Labour came third on 12.9 per cent of the vote and in 2017 finished second on 20.6 per cent.

One Labour campaigner who spent polling day in the seat encouraging longstanding Labour voters to go to the ballot box, told The