Conservatives claim Copeland from Labour

The Conservatives have won the Copeland by-election, claiming a seat Labour had held for decades.

Trudy Harrison won 13,748 votes, beating Labour's Gillian Troughton into second place, on 11,601.

The majority of more than 2,000 votes will be seen as a major humiliation for Labour.

Harrison, 40, lives in Bootle and has four daughters.

She has spent time working with Copeland Borough Council and with Sellafield nuclear power station.

Throughout her election campaign she pledged to support the nuclear industry in Copeland, including the construction of a multi-billion-pound new nuclear power station at Moorside.

She also said she's completely against proposals to change maternity services in west Cumbria, including the downgrading of West Cumberland Hospital from a consultant-led maternity service.

The stunning Tory victory will heap pressure on Jeremy Corbyn over his divisive leadership of the party.

Labour's majority in the constituency at the general election was just 2,564.

But for an opposition to lose a seat to the party of power in a mid-term vote is extremely rare.

The last time it happened was the 1982 Merton, Mitcham and Morden by-election, although technically it was a Conservative gain from SDP as the sitting MP had defected from Labour to the SDP before the poll.

Before that, the closest comparable case was Sunderland South in 1953.