Labour have retained their seat in Birmingham Erdington, with Paulette Hamilton becoming the constituency’s first black MP.

       But Sir Keir Starmer’s party won with a slim majority of 3,266, which is slightly smaller than the previous Labour majority of 3,601 under the former MP Jack Dromey.

       Labour won 9,413 of the 17,016 votes cast on Thursday (55 per cent) while the Conservatives candidate Robert Alden came second with 6,147 votes.

       Ms Hamilton said she is “absolutely delighted” to be elected and promised to “challenge the Government to get a better deal for Erdington”.

       But Mr Alden told The Telegraph that the result shows it is “clear that Keir Starmer is not ready for Government” adding that the slim majority is a “damning indictment” on his leadership.

       The by-election was triggered by the death of veteran Labour MP Jack Dromey, the husband of Harriet Harman, who has been the constituency’s MP since 2010.

       The seat has returned a Labour MP at each election since 1945 and although the constituency was abolished in the mid Fifties, it has continued to be held by Labour ever since its re-creation in 1974.

       Sir Keir, the Labour leader, along with most of his shadow front bench - Angela Rayner, Rachel Reeves and David Lammy among them - travelled to Birmingham Erdington to help with the campaign.

       Mr Alden said the Labour majority is “basically the same” as it was during the 2019 general election. “In 2005 this was the safest Labour seat in Birmingham and now it is the most marginal seat in Birmingham. This has been a Labour seat for 85 years and the fact that the majority is so small is a really damning indictment.”

       Mr Alden said it is clear that Labour have a “real problem” in Birmingham, adding: “We will take the momentum from this election into the local elections in May”.

       The Reform Party came third with 293 votes, followed by the Green Party with 236 and the Liberal Democrats with 173. All parties other than Labour and Conservatives failed to get 5 per cent of the vote, meaning they lost their deposit.

       Ms Hamilton, a retired nurse and mother-of-five, has been a Labour councillor for almost two decades. Her husband Dennis has run a hat shop in the city centre since the Eighties and is known locally as “Dennis the hat man”.

       Her campaign appeared to experience a setback when video footage emerged this week of her saying that votes may not be enough to achieve racial progress and discussing the merits of an “uprising”.

       At a panel event in 2015 called "The Ballot or the Bullet: Does Your Vote Count?" hosted by the Organisation of Black Unity, she said that Britain’s black community may not get what they "really deserve” by using democratic means alone.

       The footage led to calls for Ms Hamilton to be suspended as a Labour candidate, with Tory MPs questioning whether she represented "democratic values".

       But local Labour activists - who blame the Tory party for leaking the video to the broadcaster GB News - said this did not hinder them on the doorstep.

       “People are more concerned about the state of the high street, rising crime and if they can afford to pay their bills rather than comments someone made seven years ago,” a Labour campaign source said.

       “There is a massive world out there beyond Twitter. I think some of the Tories seem to forget that people have real issues.”

       Turnout in Thursday’s by-election was just 27 per cent, roughly half of the 53.3 per cent at the last general election. Out of 62,996 eligible constituents, just 17,016 cast a vote and local Labour officials acknowledged that the low turnout may have hindered their votes.

       “It’s been a tough campaign, the weather hasn’t been the best,” said Ian Ward, the Labour leader of Birmingham City Council, adding that the low voter turnout is “more of a problem for us than it is for the Tories”.

       Birmingham Erdington, a predominantly a white working class area with higher than average levels of deprivation, shares many characteristics with “Red Wall” seats which the Tories won during the last election.

       Canvassers on the doorstep during the campaign said that chief among voters’ concerns were the cost of living, the deterioration of the high street and housing issues.

       Mr Adlen, a father-of-two, has been a Tory councillor since 2006 and is leader of the Conservative group on the Labour-dominated council. This is the fifth time he has unsuccessfully stood as a Conservative candidate for the constituency.