Starmer is also asked about what he is doing, personally, so that he is well perceived by voters.

"I'm working on being the best leader I can be," he says, before again praising Labour for being in a better place now than it was when he became leader in 2020.

"When I took over as leader, people shook my hand and said 'good luck Keir'... you will never do this in a five-year Parliamentary term."

Starmer adds that he is pleased with the progress his party has made and hopes "people can see that".

Starmer is asked about what has been described as "the worst week" in his leadership following the party's withdrawal of support for one parliamentary candidate and the suspension of another over antisemitism claims.

Earlier this week, Labour withdrew its support for Rochdale by-election candidate Azhair Ali over comments he is alleged to have made about Israel and Jewish people.

Days later, the party suspended Graham Jones, the former MP for Hyndburn, over comments he allegedly made about Israel.

Asked whether he was slow to act to withdraw support, specifically for Ali, Starmer says:

Starmer tells the BBC that the party still has a "long way to go" before potentially forming the next government.

Starmer says that as any football fan knows, a team doesn't win the league just because they have a good lead in February. He says he often tells his team that they must fight like the party is "five points behind".

He adds: "What is at stake in this election is so huge. It's the chance to go from 14 years of decline to a decade of national renewal."

Asked about whether the results are an endorsement of Labour and Starmer, rather than a rejection of the Conservatives, Starmer says voters can see Labour has "changed" from 2019, when Jeremy Corbyn was leader and the party was heavily defeated at the general election.

He points out that the swing from the Conservatives to Labour in Wellingborough was the second biggest in any post-war election.

Starmer again mentions he is pleased about the "Tory switchers" to Labour, but adds that he is not "complacent".

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is asked about his assessment of what happened overnight.

Starmer says his party is "really pleased" with last night's results, saying it shows "the country is crying out for change".

He says voters have "concluded the Tories have failed after 14 years" in power and that Labour has "the answers to their problems", from the cost of living crisis to issues in the NHS.

He adds that he was, in particular, pleased to see voters switching directly from the Conservatives to Labour.

But, he adds, "there's more work to do" before the general election.

We're minutes away from hearing what Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has to say over on BBC Breakfast.

He'll be on the sofa after his party achieved two significant wins in yesterday's by-elections.

We'll bring you the highlights right here plus you can watch the interview live by tapping Play at the top of this page.

Lord Gavin Barwell, a former Conservative MP who served as Theresa May’s chief of staff in No 10, has picked out the Wellingborough loss as the more significant of the two losses overnight, describing it as “catastrophically bad”.

Barwell says the Kingswood defeat is "bad but not that bad", pointing out that Labour's lead is smaller than it was in 2005.

He adds on X, external that the by-elections confirm the Conservatives are facing a “perfect storm” of supporters abandoning the party for both Labour and Reform.

Image source, Getty Images

The latest reaction from the Conservative camp is in - with the party's Chairman Richard Holden admitting these were "not great" results for the Conservatives.

Holden tells BBC Breakfast it's important to "look at the context" of the defeats, though, citing former Wellingborough MP Peter Bone standing down due to claims of bullying and sexual inappropriateness.

He also pointed to voter turnout - saying numbers were "substantially down". (Turnout in Kingswood was 37% of registered voters, while in Wellingborough it was 38%.)

Holden denied that there was a massive "switch" from Conservatives to Labour, saying instead that previous Conservative voters were "staying at home".

Asked about Jacob Rees-Mogg's comments that "the right-wing must reunite to stop [Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer]", Holden said he was "totally right" - and that the Conservatives still have "every opportunity" to win the next election.

Watch what he said here:

Fatalism for Conservatives and bullishness for Labour - how parties will view resultspublished at 08:03 Greenwich Mean Time 16 February 2024

08:03 GMT 16 February 2024

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Image source, EPA

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the by-election result here in Wellingborough is how ordinary results like this have become.

The Conservatives are arguing privately that the circumstances of Peter Bone’s removal from parliament - and their own decision to select his partner as their candidate - really hurt the party.

Whatever the local factors, this by-election is unignorably part of a larger trend. Mid-Bedfordshire, Selby and Ainsty, Tamworth and now Kingswood and Wellingborough - all vast Conservative majorities lost to Labour at by-elections within about seven months.

How will this result be received in Westminster? Most obviously, it will reinforce bullishness in the Labour ranks and fatalism among Conservative MPs. That’s not nothing - some Conservatives had been beginning to feel pangs of cautious optimism after a terrible week for Labour.

In the Conservative Party, expect renewed concern about the threat from the right posed by the Reform party. Though despite their strong showing it is worth noting that even if the Conservatives had won all Reform’s votes - a very generous assumption - they would still have lost.

It's also possible these results will feed into the Conservatives’ deliberations about when the election will come.

If Rishi Sunak wants to go to the polls in May, he needs to decide to do so by the end of the March. It feels like something profound would have to change in public opinion for the prime minister to pick that option.

Image source, PA Media

We're now hearing from Scott Brown, a local Conservative councillor in Wellingborough, where Labour overturned a Conservative majority of more than 18,000.

Speaking to our colleagues on Radio 4's Today programme, Brown says the size of the swing away from the Conservatives was "surprising".

"We were under no doubt that it was going to be a tricky by-election," he explains, but he adds: "I don't think even in our worst projections, we would have reflected the majority Labour have taken."

The Tory councillor says the cost of living crisis and concerns over Wellingborough's town centre were among the biggest issues raised by voters in the area.

Asked about his thoughts going into a general election, Brown says it will be "an uphill battle" for the Tories to win "any general election", as support for the incumbent leadership is waning.

He adds that the Conservative Party "seems to have more factions than what I've ever known and that's certainly not helpful... we're losing any kind of identity at the moment".

We reported overnight that Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was present at the count in Kingswood, had reacted to Labour's win by insisting Rishi Sunak's leadership was "solid" and that "by-elections don't change that".

Rees-Mogg, who represents the nearby seat of North East Somerset, also criticised Labour for failing to get more than 50% of the vote share.

In Kingswood, Labour secured 44.9% while the Conservatives got 34.9%.

Here's what Rees-Mogg told the BBC following the result there:

Two whopping - and unsurprising - victories for Labourpublished at 07:20 Greenwich Mean Time 16 February 2024

07:20 GMT 16 February 2024

Chris Mason
Political editor

Image source, PA Media

Keir Starmer has this week endured some of the bumpiest days of his time as Labour leader - the returning row over antisemitism spooking senior Labour figures and prompting internal criticism private and public about its handling.

Then the country tilted into recession.

And now this. Two whopping victories for Labour which are most striking for almost being unsurprising - a trend extends of Labour marching forward and Conservative gloom.

For many Tories, this will feel like two more waves in an increasingly inevitable tide - likely to prompt another splash, at least, of angst and jitters about rapidly approaching doom.

The performance of Reform UK will add to that sullen outlook - polling 13% in Wellingborough, plus a bigger vote in Kingswood than the gap between the Conservatives and Labour, are statistics that will be seized on by Rishi Sunak’s internal critics as evidence he is failing on multiple fronts.

Polling expert Sir John Curtice was in the BBC's newsroom as results trickled in overnight - if you're just joining us, and seeing the news that Labour secured a double by-election win, here are his main takeaways:

• The main headline, according to Curtice, is that the results were "terrible" for the Conservatives - in Wellingborough, in particular, the ruling party suffered its "biggest ever drop ... in a post-war by-election, in a seat they were trying to defend"

• He says there's "much for Labour to be congratulated about", but that both by-election results "tell us more about the way in which the Conservatives are in deep trouble" rather than indicating whether the electorate have "bought into Labour as the preferred alternative"
• For the Greens, Curtice says the party's swing of 3.4% in Kingswood (its fifth best result at a by-election) will be a "mild encouragement" - but he warns that in a general election, they may struggle to hold on to their only seat in Brighton, where incumbent Caroline Lucas is stepping down

Here's a reminder of the results in both Wellingborough and Kingswood:

Image source, .

Image source, .

Sam Hancock
Live reporter

Hello there. Myself and the rest of the early morning team are just taking over from our colleagues who worked throughout the night to cover these by-elections.

Not to worry, we've sent them home with strict instructions to get as much sleep as they can.

It's been quite the night for Labour, who overturned an 11,220 Conservative majority in Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, followed by a second victory in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire - overturning a Tory majority of more than 18,000.

We're yet to hear from Downing Street, but Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has already been out, insisting PM Rishi Sunak's leadership is "solid". Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has described the results as "fantastic".

As the rest of the country wakes up to the news, we'll continue to bring you the latest analysis and reaction - grab a cuppa and don't go anywhere.

No hiding from fact these are bad results for the Toriespublished at 06:04 Greenwich Mean Time 16 February 2024

06:04 GMT 16 February 2024

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

Kettering Sports Village hall is quickly being turned back into a venue for football, netball, and badminton, not counting votes.

The tables are packed away. The stage is disassembled. The journalists and camera crews are finishing off their stories and heading home. We are one of the last left.

Labour’s victory here tonight is sizable. They overturned a Conservative majority of more than 18,500.

The fall in the Conservative share of the vote, -37.6%, is the second biggest drop for any party since 1945.

Put it together with their victory in Kingswood - overturning a majority of 11,000 - and you can see why the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described them as “fantastic results”.

“By winning in these Tory strongholds, we can confidently say that Labour is back in the service of working people and we will work tirelessly to deliver for them,” he said.

From the Conservative’s perspective, they will argue that sitting governments often struggle in by-elections. And they may also suggest, as Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg did tonight, that the relatively low turnout in both Kingswood and Wellingborough points to a lack of enthusiasm for Labour.

But there is no getting away from the fact these are bad results for the Conservatives, a matter of months out of a general election.

And something that will make Tory strategists even gloomier is the results from Reform UK, which used to be called the Brexit Party. In both Kingswood and Wellingborough they came third, ahead of the Liberal Democrats, with 10% and 13% of the vote share respectively - a record result for them.

We have some pictures from this morning's count centres showing Labour's two new MPs with their families and supporters following the results.

Labour's Gen Kitchen has taken the Wellingborough seat and Damien Egan secured the Kingswood seat, both overturning Conservative majorities.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

If you're just joining us, it's been a very busy few hours as we received the results of the Wellingborough and Kingswood by-elections. Let's recap:

• Labour secured a double by-election win, overturning two sizeable Conservative majorities

• Leader Sir Keir Starmer described the results as "fantastic" and said it showed "people want change and are ready to put their faith in a changed Labour Party to deliver it"

• In Wellingborough, Labour's Gen Kitchen turned over a majority of more than 18,000
• In her victory speech, she said the result "must send a message from Northamptonshire to Downing Street"
• In Kingswood, Labour's Damien Egan overturned a majority of more than 11,000. He said there was "so much to do" and that he would "work to give Kingswood its future back"

• Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, whose Somerset constituency borders Kingswood, said the result was "not as bad as I'd expected"
• He said Rishi Sunak's leadership was "solid" and that "by-elections don't change that"

Labour gave it their all and it has paid offpublished at 05:23 Greenwich Mean Time 16 February 2024

05:23 GMT 16 February 2024

Laura Coffey
Reporting from Kettering, Northampton

Wellingborough hasn’t had a Labour MP since it lost the seat in 2005 to Peter Bone.

Over the last 19 years, the former Conservative MP had grown his majority to over 18,500. It shows this constituency was ready for change.

Labour gave everything to this campaign and it has paid off.

The issues that have played out here, are similar to those across the country - cost of living, NHS and crime. One issue that kept coming up was town centre regeneration for both Wellingborough and Rushden.

But the new MP may only have months or weeks to get their head around what matters to people here before the general election.

Watch the victory speech from new Wellingborough MP Gen Kitchen, who told the crowd she was "delighted" to have won, and that Labour was "ready to serve the people of this country".