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Keir Starmer has said Labour has "more work to do" after it inflicted two by-election defeats on the Conservatives.
The party overturned majorities of 11,220 in Kingswood and 18,540 in Wellingborough, where the 28.5% swing was the second biggest from the Tories to Labour in any post-war by-election.
Sir Keir said he was "proud" of the results, but did not "want to get into the warm bath of saying: 'Job done'".
Rishi Sunak said "midterm" polls were "always difficult" for governments.
Speaking in Harlow, Essex, the prime minister said "the circumstances of these elections were of course particularly challenging".
The Wellingborough by-election was triggered by the ousting of disgraced former MP Peter Bone and the Kingswood poll by incumbent Chris Skidmore standing down in protest at government plans for new North Sea oil and gas licences.
"I think if you look at the results, very low turnout, and it shows that we've got work to do to show people that we are delivering on their priorities and that's what I'm absolutely determined to do, but also shows that there isn't a huge amount of enthusiasm for the alternative in Keir Starmer and the Labour Party, and that's because they don't have a plan.
"When the general election comes, that's the message I'll be making to the country. Stick with our plan, because it is starting to deliver the change that the country wants and needs," Mr Sunak added.
The turnout in Kingswood was 37% of registered voters, while in Wellingborough it was 38% - both around half the figure in 2019, but close to the average for by-elections in this Parliament.
Labour leader Sir Keir said the country was "crying out for change", telling BBC Breakfast his party was "a different party" to what it had been in 2019. He said voters "can see that we've got the answers to their problems."
But he added: "I would say this particularly to my team, there is more work to do. There is always more work to do." He said he had told them to "fight like we're five points behind".
Sir Keir said Labour were "credible contenders" for the general election, but "that is all we are."
The results mean the Tories - who are trailing a long way behind Labour in national opinion polls ahead of a general election due this year - have suffered 10 by-election losses in this parliament, more than any other government since the 1960s.
In Wellingborough, Labour's Gen Kitchen, a former London councillor who works in the charity sector and grew up in Northamptonshire, secured a comfortable majority of 6,436.
Meanwhile, the Tories suffered their biggest drop in vote share in any by-election since at least the Second World War.
Ms Kitchen said: "The people of Wellingborough have spoken for Britain. This is a stunning victory for the Labour Party and must send a message from Northamptonshire to Downing Street."
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The by-election came after former Tory MP Mr Bone was kicked out by voters in a recall petition, following his suspension from Parliament over bullying and sexual misconduct allegations, which he denied.
Mr Bone had held the constituency since 2005, increasing his majority since then to turn it into a safe Tory seat.
His partner, Northamptonshire councillor Helen Harrison, was selected by local members as the Tory candidate to replace him.
Ms Harrison told the BBC she would be "back and fighting again for the general election".
The Tories also faced a challenge from the right with Reform UK, which achieved its best by-election result since it rebranded from its previous name, the Brexit Party, in 2021.
The party came third in both by-elections, picking up 13% of the vote in Wellingborough and 10.4% in Kingswood.
Mr Sunak warned that a vote for anyone other than the Conservatives was a vote for Sir Keir, because the general election would be "between me and him, between the Conservatives and Labour".
A source close to Conservative critics of the prime minister said Labour was "storming to a huge victory and we have an insurgent party on the right polling above 10%".
"Cue [former Brexit Party leader] Nigel Farage's intervention two months out from a general election and we're facing an extinction level event," the source added.
Labour secured a majority of 2,501 over Tory candidate Sam Bromiley in the South Gloucestershire seat of Kingswood, near Bristol.
In his victory speech Damien Egan, who resigned as mayor of Lewisham in London to fight the seat where he grew up, said 14 years of a Conservative government had "sucked the hope out of our country"
He blamed "Rishi's recession" for leaving people "paying more and getting less".
The constituency had been held by former Tory MP Mr Skidmore since 2010, until he quit over the government's climate policies.
Conservative MP and former cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who represents the nearby seat of North East Somerset, said the Kingswood result was "not as bad as I'd expected".
He told the BBC a lot of Tory voters appeared to have stayed at home and suggested more could turn out at a general election, which he said "focuses people's minds in a different way to a by-election".
However, the results pile further pressure on the prime minister following the latest official figures on Thursday which showed the UK economy fell into recession at the end of last year.
It also comes at the end of a difficult week for Labour, after the party dropped its flagship pledge to spend £28bn a year on green projects and was forced to withdraw support for its candidate in the upcoming Rochdale by-election over comments he made about Israel and Jewish people.
Sir Keir denied being slow to act, saying: "I did something that no leader of the Labour Party has ever done before, which was to remove a candidate in a by-election where they can not be replaced because I was determined to take decisive action in relation to antisemitism."
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2024-02-16 10:24:50Z
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