Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Theresa May this morning finds her grip on British politics hugely strengthened.

For a governing party after seven years of austerity to be sweeping aside Labour in a heartland seat and to see their share of the vote increase in another is an extraordinary achievement.

It will be taken by her supporters as a vindication of her hard-edged drive towards Brexit and her break with the more metropolitan politics of David Cameron. 

As for Labour, relief that it has at least repulsed the perceived threat of UKIP but its slow painful anguish under Jeremy Corbyn seems set to continue. 

In normal times, both by-elections should have raised barely a flicker of concern and while the slide in support may not ignite a further leadership challenge, the convictions of Mr Corbyn's critics that he is leading the party into the wilderness will only have been strengthened.

The former MP Jamie Reed, whose resignation prompted the Copeland by-election, says it was Labour voters staying at home, not changing their allegiance to the Conservatives, that lost the seat.

Cumbria's newest MP Trudy Harrison has been welcomed by her Conservative colleagues.

MP for Carlisle, John Stevenson, told BBC Radio Cumbria he was looking forward to working with Mrs Harrison: "We have some common interests, the A595 being the obvious one, we have common interests with regard to the hospitals and the nuclear industry is vital to the whole county, so there's a lot of things where MPs can work together."

Image source, John Stevenson.

The Labour Party may have overestimated the NHS in West Cumbria as a trump card to play in the by-election that saw them lose the seat, according to one political expert.

Campaigners supporting Gillian Troughton, the Labour candidate, saw the threat to move some services from the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven to the Carlisle hospital 40 miles away as a key issue .

But Dr Stuart Wilks-Heeg, head of politics at Liverpool University, says the party's strategy of focussing on the NHS didn't seem to work for them.

The Labour MP for Barrow and Furness, John Woodcock, says the result of the Copeland by-election is "a disaster".

The seat was taken from Labour by Conservative Trudy Harrison, who won a majority of more than 2,000 votes.

John Woodcock has been fiercely critical of the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and says his party "should admit it's in trouble and has little chance of winning the next general election". 

Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell says the Copeland result is 'really disappointing'

The Mayor of Copeland, Mike Starkie, who was elected as an Independent, said he was hopeful that Conservative pledges made during the election to increase investment in Copeland would be fulfilled.

Many campaigners visited the county to gather votes for Trudy Harrison, including Prime Minister Theresa May.

Image source, Mike Starkie

The Conservatives take Cumbrian seat from Labour but the opposition holds off UKIP in Stoke Central.

One word resounds through the national press reaction to the Copeland by-election result: Humiliation.

For the Labour-supporting Mirror, external , it was a crushing blow for Jeremy Corbyn, and UKIP's humiliation; most of the other nationals, like the  Daily Mail, external  and the Daily Telegraph, external , saw the h-word as applying to the Labour leader.

BBC Politics

Trudy Harrison: "I won because what I represent is what the people of this area need. I know that because I have lived here all of my life."

BBC Politics

How does the Copeland by-election vote share in 2017 compare to the 2015 general election?

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The by-election result in Copeland is a "disaster" for Labour, says the party's MP in the neighbouring seat. 

Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock says Labour are heading for a "historic and catastrophic defeat" in the general election.  

The Copeland campaign saw Labour arguably banging its biggest drum, the NHS, but the Conservatives found the nuclear industry, employing more than 10,000 people in the constituency, was the beat the voters preferred.

Labour's campaign manager Andrew Gwynne said the party had a job to do to rebuild its support.

The day's other by-election, in Stoke Central, was seen as testing Labour against a different opponent, UKIP.

Labour's Gareth Snell took the Potteries seat though and UKIP's leader Paul Nuttall came second, only 100 votes ahead of the third-placed Conservative.

Mr Nuttall said his party's time would come.

Mr Snell had this assessment: "Labour's victory in Stoke is a decisive rejection of UKIP's politics of division and dishonesty."

The Whitehaven News, external greeted the Copeland result like this.

Image source, CN group

It was, however, pipped at the post for the basic result by its daily stablemate the News and Star, external  which, like the county's other daily the North West Evening Mail, external , part of the same CN Group, went on to share the same front page headline and story.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Labour has suffered a bruising defeat at the hand of the Conservatives in Copeland, a seat it had held for the past 80 years.

Former Labour voters tell reporter Zoe Conway why they turned to the Tories for the first time. 

A question a lot of people were asking yesterday was how much Storm Doris would affect the turnout. 

Not much more than a third of people eligible to vote in the Stoke Central seat did so, with the turnout standing at 36.7%.

In Copeland, which also suffered the wrath of Storm Doris, 51.27% of voters cast their ballots. 

Image source, Getty Images

Taking a look at other recent by-elections, the turnout for Richmond Park in December 2016 was 53.6%. 

In October 2016, Witney was contested after David Cameron stood down as an MP . The turnout there was 46.8%.

On the same October day there was a by-election in Batley and Spen, following the death of Jo Cox . 

That saw a turnout of just over 25%. However, the main parties opted not to stand against Labour in that contest.

Martin Lewes
Reporter

The turnout in the Copeland by-election was 51.27%, down nearly 13% on the 2015 general election, but larger than expected.

In comparison, the other by-election in Stoke brought out just 36.69% of voters. That was about 13% down on the 2015 general election figure.

BBC Weather

It'll be a cold start with a patchy frost and the risk of ice, particularly on untreated surfaces.

You can find the latest forecast for where you are, here .

Labour's record with nuclear issues in Cumbria is mixed. 

Labour held Barrow and Furness, the neighbouring seat to the south, from 1945 until 1983.

Then, with Labour's support for the nuclear-armed submarines built in the shipyard there in question, the Conservative Cecil Franks took the seat.

He held it until 1992.

This was the moment the Conservatives discovered they had won the Copeland seat, after more than 80 years of Labour victories.