Betfair – UKIP backed for victory in ‘Labour Heartland’ of Stoke

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has been backed to ‘around even money’ on the Betfair Exchange to win the Stoke Central by-election, doubling UKIP’s parliamentary representation to 2 MPs.

Updating its ‘Stoke By-Election’ market, Betfair politics informed that UKIP had traded as low as 1.98 in a constituency renowned as ‘Labour Heartland’.

The by-election, which was called after incumbent Labour MP Tristram Hunt resigned to become head of the V&A Museum in London, is scheduled to take place on 23 February. This week the Labour Party announced its shortlist of four candidates that will compete against Nuttall for the Stoke Central seat.

Confident of his upcoming victory, Nuttall told UK news sources that a Stoke by-election win would represent a further blow to Labour’s relationship with working class Britain.

At present, the Betfair Exchange still has the Labour Party holding its seat at 1.9. Nevertheless, polls commissioned this week by ‘Labour Leave’ have Nuttall and UKIP winning the constituency by 10 points. As a constituency,  Stoke Central voted 70% in favour of leaving the European Union in the June 2016 referendum.

Labour leadership will push for a Stoke fightback once the party confirms its constituency candidate. However, several UK political commentators have pointed that the loss of Stoke to UKIP would represent ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s Waterloo’ as Labour Party leader.