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The people of Barnsley Central are sending the strongest possible message to David Cameron and Nick Clegg
Dan Jarvis
Labour has won the Barnsley Central by-election as voters inflicted a crushing defeat on the coalition.
The Liberal Democrats slipped from second to a humiliating sixth place behind the Conservatives, the UK Independence Party, the BNP and an independent candidate.
It was also an embarrassing night for David Cameron, as the Tories were pushed into third place by Ukip, who polled 2,953 votes to the Conservatives' 1,999.
Labour candidate Dan Jarvis secured 14,724 votes, a majority of 11,771 – an increased vote share for the party in the Labour stronghold.
Lib Dem president Tim Farron said: "It was a poor result for us. It was a poor result for the Tories. The coalition parties didn't do very well here. Surprise, surprise."
"Dan Jarvis will be a good MP, I'm sure, and it would be churlish not to congratulate him.
The constituency's new MP said of his victory: "The people of Barnsley Central are sending the strongest possible message to David Cameron and Nick Clegg.
"Your reckless policies, your broken promises and your unfair cuts are letting our country down."
The by-election was called after the MP elected at the general election, Eric Illsley, quit parliament following his imprisonment for fraud related to his expense claims.
The former Labour MP faced three charges related to claims for council tax, service charges and maintenance, repairs and utility bills between 2005 and 2008
He was suspended from the Labour Party following the allegations and sat as an independent following his re-election in 2010.
Speaking about the result this morning Nick Clegg said it was "obviously a bad result for the Liberal Democrats."
He said: "I have no doubt that people will try to use this single result to write off the Liberal Democrats. They have done it in the past and we have proved them wrong and we will prove them wrong again.
"In government, we will continue to do what I think is absolutely vital for the long-term benefit of the country - namely sort out the economic mess we inherited from Labour for the long-term benefit of the country."
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