By Jonathan Isaby
In the early hours of this morning the result of yesterday's Barnsley Central by-election came through, with Labour, as widely anticipated, holding the seat with a comfortable majority.
Howvere, the headline on which the media are seizing ("humiliated" is the popular adjecitve of choice) is the fact that the Lib Dems dropped from second place at the general election to sixth place yesterday, behind the BNP, and losing their deposit in the process.
The Conservatives retained the third place attained last year, albeit with UKIP leapfrogging to take second place.
The full result was:
Dan Jarvis (Lab) 14,724 (60.80%, +13.53%)
Jane Collins (UKIP) 2,953 (12.19%, +7.53%)
James Hockney (C) 1,999 (8.25%, -9.01%)
Enis Dalton (BNP) 1,463 (6.04%, -2.90%)
Tony Devoy (Ind) 1,266 (5.23%, +3.58%)
Dominic Carman (LD) 1,012 (4.18%, -13.10%)
Kevin Riddiough (Eng Dem) 544 (2.25%)
Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 198 (0.82%)
Michael Val Davies (Ind) 60 (0.25%)
Lab majority 11,771 (48.60%)
Turnout 24,219 (37.00%, -19.46%)
