The new Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington has said her byelection victory shows the party is “finally turning a corner” after she secured the seat with a majority of 3,266.
Paulette Hamilton, a former nurse, will become the city’s first black MP after getting 9,413 votes, beating the Conservative candidate, Robert Alden, who got 6,147. Labour’s vote share rose to 55.5% from 50.3% in 2019.
“We heard the issues, we shared our policies and I believe the Labour party is finally turning a corner … Labour policies are now actually seeping through,” she told the Guardian after the result was announced in the early hours of Friday.
“This byelection has shown that with the right campaign, with listening to what the public are telling us and acting upon that [the party can secure more success].”
The contest was triggered by the sudden death in January of Jack Dromey, who had held the seat for Labour since 2010. After the result was announced, Hamilton paid tribute to the late MP, saying: “He was a wonderful MP for his constituency and in the past few weeks campaigning across Erdington, Castle Vale and Kingstanding, I have heard so many stories of the difference Jack made to the people’s lives.”
Labour was the favourite to win, having held the constituency since it was created in 1974, but the Conservatives increased their vote share in recent years and there were jitters a low turnout could produce a surprise result.
In her victory speech, Hamilton said: “I’m truly humbled and honoured to be elected as a member of parliament. I will not take your vote for granted. I have met many of you and I have heard what you have to say and I commit to you now: I will work for you … I will be your voice in Westminster.”
Hamilton said the party had been expecting a comfortable victory. “We were confident that with knocking every door and doing what we needed to do, we would secure the win,” she said. “But we knew we couldn’t be complacent, we knew we had to fight for every vote, because people needed to hear our voice.”
Turnout was low, at 27%, with a total of 17,016 ballots cast – fewer than the 17,720 votes Dromey received in 2019. Alden, Hamilton’s main rival, has fought the seat for the past four general elections, and is leader of the Tory group on the city council.
Dromey, who was married to the former Labour cabinet minister Harriet Harman, held the seat with a majority of 3,601 in 2019 when the Conservatives made significant gains in the region, including taking the former Labour stronghold Birmingham Northfield.
Hamilton, 59, is the cabinet member for health and social care on Labour-controlled Birmingham city council and has lived in the seat for 35 years. After a smooth campaign, on the eve of the vote comments emerged that were made by Hamilton in 2015 at an event called “The Ballot or the Bullet – does your vote count?”
“I’m not sure we will get what we really deserve in this country using the vote,” she said. “But I don’t know if we are a strong enough group to get what we want to get if we have an uprising … I am very torn.”
Labour said the comments were “misrepresented and taken out of context as part of a deliberate attempt by the Conservatives and their allies to hijack a democratic election … These attacks on a black woman seeking to become the city’s first black MP are deeply disturbing.”
On Friday Hamilton said she had received “horrendous” abuse online as a result and added: “I could start an argument or discussion about it. But the community that I serve deserves a fresh start, we need to move on and something that is seven years old, we need to leave that there.”
