Kim Leadbeater: New MP hopes to emulate sister Jo Cox

Newly-elected Labour MP Kim Leadbeater said if she could be "half as good" at the job as her sister Jo Cox she would have done her and her family proud.

Ms Leadbeater won the Batley and Spen by-election on Friday, the same seat held by Ms Cox until she was murdered by a far-right extremist in June 2016.

She said: "As a family this is a huge deal," adding that her first day in the Commons would be "emotional".

Jo Cox's widower Brendan Cox said Ms Leadbeater had been "incredibly brave".

He added it was "a very bruising and pretty horrible campaign at times."

The campaign for the West Yorkshire seat was affected by allegations of dirty tricks, including alleged assaults on Labour campaigners while out leafleting.

There will be a big "phew" coming from Labour door-knockers this morning - they may even be excused a large wipe of the brow.

It was close - in door-knocking terms - 323 votes is just an extra couple of streets hard graft in the summer heat.

Labour will put this victory down to two things - that ground campaign and localness. As part of our coverage I went out to film with the Labour campaigners and saw Kim literally running around getting to as many doors as she could.

Kim Leadbeater was also the only candidate of 16 to actually live in the constituency. One of those 323 winning votes was her own. Her campaign focused heavily on her knowing the people of Batley and Spen well. One of her key lines to voters was that after this is all over, she'd still be living with the result here.

She'll be pretty happy with who her local MP is today.

After defeating her Conservative rival by just 323 votes, Ms Leadbeater said constituents had "rejected division" and "voted for hope".

Early on Friday, Ms Leadbeater said she had spoken to her parents and would break the news to Ms Cox's children when they got up.

"We are all very excited," she said. "It was a massive decision for us as a family, and it was a family decision. No-one asked me to do this, but they will support me."

She added: "I always thought we could do it, I knew it was going to be close, I knew it would be tough, but I knew we could do it.

"For me, this by-election was always about the people of Batley and Spen, that is what I have focused on, and that is what I will focus on now when I get on with the job.

"We need to do politics better, there is no place for abuse, intimidation, we have had things thrown at people, we have had an assault, that's not what we need.

"If I can show a different way, then I think that's important."

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