Corbyn's Labour victorious in Oldham West and Royton by-election as UKIP stall. A view from Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats.

Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats, said today:

"Despite having a clear run left for them by the English Democrats, UKIP have failed (again) to beat Corbyn’s Labour in Oldham. UKIP have 'shot their bolt'!

The English Democrats left the field clear for UKIP insurgents to do as well as possible in Oldham.  Despite Labour’s new Leader making it clear that he was very much of the unpatriotic Far Left, nevertheless UKIP was unable to make the breakthrough.

 

This was even with all UKIP's tremendous campaigning efforts and its £100,000 campaign spend.  UKIP’s "Believe in Britain" and "British" Eurosceptic message failed to resonate sufficiently with Oldham's patriotic English voters.

 

It is now increasingly clear that UKIP’s time has come and gone. UKIP’s shelf life is limited in any case to the end of 2017, by which time the EU Referendum would have been decided and UKIP’s sole purpose will have either been endorsed or rejected by the electorate of the United Kingdom.

 

It was sadly all too predictable that UKIP’s insurgency in Oldham would fail, given UKIP’s failure to become an English nationalist party and its leadership’s obsession with increasingly old-fashioned and irrelevant Britishness.

  

UKIP’s shelf life is now approaching the end, as once the EU Referendum has come and gone, before the end of 2017, UKIP’s sole purpose will have ended.  I am now looking forward to the day when the rising sense of English nationalism is politically and culturally centre stage - from 2018 onwards!”

This by-election result supports my view that Jeremy Corbyn is not so unpopular in Labour's heartlands as some media commentators and pundits would have us believe.

Mr Corbyn is no crusader for English nationhood or Englishness.  However, whether you agree with him or not, you know where he stands and that he sticks to his beliefs - an attribute which is rare in the British political establishment.