"the voters of Batley & Spen have rejected division and voted for hope".

It makes a nice change to see Keir Starmer a bit animated, after the Batley and Spen result! 

A lot of people including many Labour Party members have been a bit puzzled as to why he has been so unanimated, generally, since he became party leader. I've only heard him speak live on one occasion - I went to the Labour Party Leadership hustings in Durham. The 3 surviving candidates (Keir, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy) were on the platform. Jess Philips, Clive Lewis and whoever else was in the race had fallen by the wayside by then. The hustings were straight questions submitted by the audience (Labour Party members) via the chair. Each candidate had the same time to answer. Of the 3 candidates, Keir and Lisa came across the best, I thought. They had a natural way of communicating which made it seem like they weren't reading from a script. I would've been happy with either of them as leader. I actually voted for Lisa as I thought it was about time the Labour Party had a woman as a leader, but I was happy enough when Keir was elected. He's clearly left wing, was against the Iraq war and in favour of most of the last Labour manifesto. He messed up the post-Brexit political situation - but so did nearly everyone! So a new dawn for Labour. He seemed to have the right approach. First, rehabilitate the Labour Party to make it an attractive electoral proposition and then win an election. He's done a pretty good job on the first challenge, but it's still a work in progress. On the second, well the jury is still out. Hopefully the Batley and Spen byelection win is a watershed moment.

Keir S said "This byelection is a turning point, a sign that politics of division and dishonesty won't win out, that unity and decency can".

Anyone who wants a change of MP in Hexham will be heartened by this message. Unity and decency. I think we can all get behind that.

I've been cycling around the constituency a lot recently as training for Lands End to John O Groats later in the summer. What a place we live! Vast rural areas and lovely towns and villages. I've got another confession to make - I'm a townie. Brought up in London. But I escaped and I love the countryside. As I live in Wylam I feel I've got the best of both worlds, in the country but near the towns and cities. Also 4 pubs in the village as well as restaurants and shops. A great place to live.

For Hexham to get a non-Tory MP at the next election there needs to be an electoral alliance between rural and urban voters in the constituency. As I've been cycling around I've been thinking about that a bit. Rural voters are often "producers" and urban, "consumers". But they are linked by common interests - good food quality, value for money, animal welfare, worry about cheap food imports, affordable housing, education, climate change, pot holes, flooding, care of veterans, funding the NHS, looking after our elderly relatives, food hunger, dealing with the aftermath of Brexit. The list goes on. 

Kim Leadbeater said "the voters of Batley & Spen have rejected division and voted for hope". Imagine how brave you have to be to stand to be MP in a place where your sister was murdered by a right wing extremist? On top of that you have to have police protection during the campaign because of attacks on campaigners. The Labour movement is full of brave people. Are we brave enough to do what we need to do to get a non-Tory MP for Hexham? We need some kind of progressive alliance to do that........