I feel the result of the Batley and Spen bye-election is very difficult to draw conclusions from. I have seen a lot of comment from the Conservative side pointing out a margin or around 300 votes in a historically Labour seat is a bad sign, but that, deliberately or otherwise, ignores Galloway and his stated objective of splitting the Labour vote. If he had not done that, the margin would be substantially greater.

On the other hand, Hancock's Half Hour and some support for Leadbeater because of Jo's murder will have played a part, and that only needs to have shifted the opinion of a few hundred to alter the result.

My feeling is that there will be a lot of special pleading on both sides and drawing any firm conclusion is risky.