The Lib Dem fight-back continued in the Potteries by-election, as UKIP failed to live up to its own hype in the Leave centre of Britain.

Liberal Democrat president Sal Brinton, seeing the party’s share of the vote more than double, said from Stoke:

“The Potteries decided there was no need to have UKIP’s official leader in parliament when UKIP’s unofficial leader is already in Number 10, pursuing a hard Brexit.”

The Lib Dem vote was up from 4% to 10%.

Sal Brinton continued:

“We would have done even better but for many voters, drawn to the Lib Dems, who felt they just couldn’t risk being represented by a UKIP MP, so reluctantly backed Labour. Paul Nuttall called this seat Brexit Central but it turned out to be the end of the line for UKIP.

“There is also little comfort for Labour, whose vote share has more than halved here in less than two decades. This is on top of an incredibly tough night for them in Copeland. It shows that if we are to turn out this divided and uncaring Conservative Brexit government, the Liberal Democrats will be the ones making the progressive case to keep Britain open, tolerant and united.”

Since May the Liberal Democrats have made 30 council gains across the country, ten times more than any other party. They have won a famous parliamentary by-election in Richmond Park and their membership has almost doubled since the general election. Recently the party has won council by elections in Leave areas such as Sunderland and Rotherham, and two more tonight.

Sal Brinton added:

“We started from a low base here but our vote is picking up and this is yet another sign that the Lib Dem fight-back is on.”