 There isn't a first rule of politics, but if there were one, it should probably be that in no circumstances should you tell voters that they'll be better off if they vote for the other guys. However, as Labour's dreadful results came in after the hard people by election, the shadow secretary of state for transport did just that. It's a cringe inducing moment. Let's take a look. The reason why I support Keir Starmer is because he is serious, he's professional and he will earn us the right to be heard and that's what he's done in this campaign. But listen, it's a long journey. You know, the 2019 elections were not good elections for us. We knew it would take time to recover and rebuild and rebuild that trust and we're in the very early stages of that and it will take time. You say he's earned you the right to be heard, but clearly the voters of Hartlepool have not liked what they've heard from the Labour Party. They appear to and you've virtually conceded that they have voted for the Conservatives here, so something wrong with Labour's either the message or the messenger. But from a Hartlepool perspective, the Tory offer was compelling. Listen, look at the red wall seats surrounding you, look at the investment in the Towns Fund, the Restoring Your Railways Fund, the Free Ports and look what Tory MPs do when you elect them and the Tories funnel money towards them. And it's almost like a no risk option. Listen, this is a by-lection was never about changing the government. It was never about changing the Prime Minister, but it was a chance for people in Hartlepool to realise investment that for 11 years under the Tories, they have been denied and it's clear that they've taken that choice. I mean, I know what he was trying to do. He was trying to give a critique of pork barrel politics. Pork barrel politics is the idea that central government hands out investment and cash for political gain. So the critique of Boris Johnson is he is investing particularly in those towns which he wants the Conservatives to win or particularly handing out cash where there are either Conservative mayors or Conservative MPs because he thinks that will help them stay in power. I can see what he's trying to do, but on the face of it, I mean, how that came across is you've got a Shadow Minister for the Labour Party saying, if you vote Tory in a so-called red wall area in somewhere like Hartlepool or a neighbouring region, you will be richer. You will be better off. You will get more investment, right? He's telling you to vote Tory. What does he have to say about the Labour Party? Keir Starmer is serious and professional, but the Tories, they'll bring about investment into your town. He even says, look at the Tories in nearby towns, right? They're bringing in the money. It's a no risk thing to do. He's basically a salesman for the Conservative Party. His point there is that this is a by-election. In a general election, we'll have a very different message. One, it doesn't really work like that. If people remember, oh, the Tories bring investment. If you're reinforcing the Tories bring investment, they're not going to say, oh, in this general election, maybe on a net level, if we vote Labour, that would give us more investment. No, that's not how people think. I suppose more immediately than that, Hartlepool isn't going to be the only by-election in the Northeast in the coming weeks and months. There's very likely to be one in West Yorkshire, in Batley and Spen, because there a Labour MP is very likely, unless there's a really catastrophic night for Labour, will have been elected as the Mayor of West Yorkshire. She said she'll stand down as an MP if that happens. It's going to be a by-election in a very nearby place. You've got Labour front-benchers saying, oh, to be honest, if you live in the north of England and you're a Brexit voting place, probably in your best interest to vote for the Conservatives. Maybe think about voting for us, though, because we're serious and professional. What is that when Jeremy Corbyn and Labour in 2017 increased their share of the vote by 9.5%? People are saying he's not electable. An election just happened and Labour increased its share of the vote by the most it's ever done since 1945. I mean, you can't say it's unelectable. You might not say they did enough to win or whatever, but there was an election. Again, electable isn't like a child isn't born electable, like with blue eyes or dark hair. It's not an adjective to describe a human characteristic when he's tall or they have a deep voice. Electable is a reflection of how you do in-elections. Crazy idea, I know. By the way, I'm back in Spen, Michael. There's a labour majority of around 3,000 there. I personally think that's as good as gone. Big if. Tracy Brabham no longer is going to be the MP there. And guess what? Kear Stammer, Sir Kear Rodney Stammer, you plonker, has already picked his candidate. They've already selected their candidate. It's somebody who's not from the area and has a big flash. I think it's Mercedes. So I'm sure that's going to go down really well. And I'm sure it will be just as great a result as Paul Williams wasn't hardly. Congratulations. The professionals are back. The grown-ups are running the Labour Party all over again. What you saw there was a Labour politician, a Labour Front Bencher, essentially making excuses for why the Labour Party lost. And in making those excuses said, essentially, well, the Conservatives are very good and we're not very good. And this is what we've seen in the run-up to this election as well. I mean, I think probably the reasons they've lost this election are more to do with a longer term story that involves essentially Brexit, also two leaderships who weren't particularly popular. Kear Stammer, it seems, evidently from the polling less. So then the previous one are not from the polling from the results. But this story that they've told, because they're more concerned with making excuses for the leadership and attacking the left, when they're asked, why are you polling poorly, they don't say, look, we're not interested in the polls. What we're interested in is selling our very concrete vision and saying what we're going to do is invest in a green industrial revolution, et cetera, et cetera. So we actually remember what they stand for. No, they say, oh, the reason we're polling poorly is because actually the Conservatives have had a really good pandemic. They're doing a really great vaccine rollout. And also the Labour Party is really shit. Labour Party has no connection to ordinary people. We have all of these extremist members. So yeah, the reason the Tories are doing really well is because they're great and we're shit. It's the opposite of what you should do as a politician, because also it's not even honest. I mean, they say, oh, the reason we're doing bad is because the pandemic helps the Conservatives. The pandemic helps the Conservatives because even though they've made error after error after error, which led to one of the highest death tolls in the world, you didn't make it stick because you were too busy attacking people in your own party. And now when you're not polling very well, you say, oh, actually, you know, the Tories, the Tories are great vaccine rollout. Brilliant, we're shit, right? It's not a way to win an election. All of this reminds me of this old gag in the Simpsons about the US Democrats. I can't see the Democratic convention and the banners are, we hate life and ourselves. We can't govern. Now, I can't think of a better parody of Keir Starmer's Labour at this point in time. You ask them, what's your vision? What do you offer? Oh, well, what we're going to do is we're going to change ourselves. We're going to change the Labour Party because no one likes us. And so how are you going to beat the other guys? Oh, it's going to be really hard to beat the other guys because actually they're doing really well. That's literally the Labour Party strategy at this point in time. Why vote for us? I don't know because they're great and we're shit. It doesn't work.