Labour has seen off Ukip’s leader, Paul Nuttall, in the battle for Stoke-on-Trent Central, with a victory that will bring relief to party chiefs about the threat posed by the anti-EU party in the Brexit heartlands.

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Gareth Snell defeated Nuttall by 7,853 votes to 5,233, giving him a majority of 2,620. The Ukip leader, who is from Merseyside and admitted he had few links to the city in Staffordshire, had gambled that the seat was winnable on the basis of the constituency’s 69% leave vote in the June 2016 EU referendum. The Conservatives’ Jack Brereton came third with 5,154 votes and the Lib Dems’ Zulifiqar Ali was fourth with 2,083.

Nuttall’s defeat will undermine his oft-stated ambition to replace Labour as the voice of the working class and will leave many questioning the party’s relevance.

Ukip’s campaign billboards relentlessly focused on Labour’s historical opposition to Brexit despite the party’s three-line whip to support the article 50 bill. Snell, a local councillor, had campaigned for remain but repeatedly pledged he would do nothing to thwart the referendum result and would focus on delivering a Brexit that would not damage the key industries in the Potteries.

In his victory speech Snell said his win proved Stoke would not allow itself to be defined by the referendum result. “The city lazily dubbed by some as the capital of Brexit has once again proven to the world that we are so much more than that,” he said.

“So for those who have come to Stoke-on-Trent to sow hatred and division, and to try to turn us away from our friends and neighbours, I have one message: you have failed,” he said to cheers from Labour activists. “Tonight the people of Stoke-on-Trent have chosen the politics of hope over the politics of fear. We have said with one voice that hatred and bigotry are not welcome here. This is a proud city and we stand together.”

Key to Snell’s campaign were his local links, in contrast to Nuttall and the former Labour MP Tristram Hunt. Nuttall’s campaign was dogged by controversy, with questions over his residency in the constituency, his failure to name one of the six pottery towns in the seat, and his admission he had not lost close personal friends in the Hillsborough disaster despite claims to the contrary on his website.

Turnout was 38% in a seat where both campaigns had admitted they were battling apathy. Stoke Central was the only seat in the country in the 2015 general election where less than half of the population voted. In 2015 Hunt held the seat with a majority of 5,179, while Ukip beat the Conservatives to second place.

A spokesman for the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn said: “Stoke has rejected Ukip’s politics of division and dishonesty. Ukip’s claim to represent working class people has been exposed as a sham.”

The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, said the result was the “the beginning of the end” for Nuttall’s party. “They no longer have a purpose – Theresa May has adopted Farage’s approach to Brexit and her government has become indistinguishable from Ukip.”

Labour said at least 600 activists turned out to campaign in gale-force winds and driving rain. Disruption caused by Storm Doris nevertheless played havoc with their organisation, with at least 10 Labour MPs and staff stranded in a train outside Rugby that eventually turned back to London.

Labour sources had said in the runup to the poll that it expected its experienced and superior campaign on the ground to prove the clinching factor in the seat, as well as doubts over Nuttall’s authenticity.

As polls closed, Corbyn wrote to MPs thanking them for their efforts at a “difficult time for the party” after a week of emotional divisions over the Brexit bill vote.

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“We always knew that these were going to be competitive, close and challenging elections, but with your help we have made the arguments on the issues that matter to working people – our local NHS services, and an economy that works for the whole of the country, ensuring that no one is left behind,” Corbyn wrote.

“We should all be proud of the campaigns we have run, and I have extended my thanks, on behalf of the PLP, to the party staff who have put their lives on hold and worked seven-day weeks to make the case for Labour.”

The stakes for Nuttall could not have been higher, with the very survival of Ukip at stake. Two of his own party’s local chairs in Merseyside resigned because of the insensitivity of his Hillsborough error, and the party had already spent months in disarray after the departure of former leader Nigel Farage, replaced for just 18 days by Diane James, followed by another leadership election that Nuttall won.

At Ukip’s spring conference last week Farage was emphatic: “I don’t think anybody for one moment can underplay just how important, just how fundamental that byelection is for the futures of both the Labour party and indeed of Ukip too – it matters and it matters hugely,” he said.

Failing his toughest challenge yet will prompt soul-searching for Nuttall. Mobbed by cameras leaving the leisure centre and chased up and down the street in a frantic search for his car under police escort, Nuttall insisted he would not resign. “No, I’m only 12 weeks in, come on, give me a break,” he said cheerfully.

“We’ve unified the party, we’ll go forward. Ukip’s moving forward and this will happen. This seat was 72 on our target list, there is a lot more to come from us. We are not going anywhere, we move on. There are other issues beyond Brexit. Lots more seats will happen where we will have more success in the future.”



Nuttall denied it was the controversy over his Hillsborough comments or home address in Stoke that had cost him the seat. “I’ve apologised for that. We move forward,” he said.

The road to a seat in the Commons, which proved so elusive for Farage, looks rockier than ever, not just because of the loss in Stoke but because the controversy over Nuttall’s past remarks about Hillsborough are likely to dog him, were he to stand for election near his home in the north-west.

Over the past weeks in Stoke the city’s status as the latest battleground for the march of the populist right has captured international attention. At the count, more than 100 journalists packed the Fenton Manor sports centre, with candidates featuring prominently in the international press, including the New York Times. One unexpected guest was the rapper Professor Green, who was filming a new project about working class young men and happily posed for selfies with bystanders.