Conservatives In The U.K. Just Won A Seat That Labour Had Held For 80 Years

Thursday night, the Conservative Party in the U.K. won a by-election in Copeland, winning a seat in Parliament that had been held by the Labour Party for over 80 years. Conservative Trudy Harrison defeated Labour's Gillian Troughton by over 2,000 votes, in what was considered to be an upset.

Many first-time Conservative voters in Copeland cited the Conservative Party's commitment to supporting nuclear power as the motivation behind their vote.

This defeat is the latest loss taken by Labour Party in what has been a stunning collapse of the party over the past decade. After David Cameron took power in 2010, Labour has seen its numbers dwindle, the party split into various factions in the leadership election, and has been completely unable to effectively get itself together. Coupled last night's result in Copeland with the stunning Brexit vote last June and the effective loss of Scotland, the Labour Party appears to be in big trouble with the core of its base.

Now, of course, the ball is in the Conservative's court, and they have to maintain this level of success. This could prove challenging, but things across the Atlantic appear to be getting quite interesting.