Labour have held on to their former prime minister’s seat – a constituency they have held for more than 40 years, and a safe Labour seat that they should win effortlessly. That should be the story you’re being told – that the result is the bare minimum we would expect – yet here we are with most of the media talking obsessively about how this result is a huge failure for the Green Party.
It isn’t.
The verdict being presented is that this is somehow a humiliation for Zack Polanski. That he staked his credibility on winning this by-election and, having failed to do so, has seen his bubble burst – he is a busted flush and the Green insurgency is over. That is totally the wrong conclusion.