Stoke-on-Trent/Whitehaven — British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives secured a landmark victory in a parliamentary by-election on Friday, boosting her hand ahead of upcoming Brexit negotiations as her rivals suffered damaging poll setbacks. The Conservatives captured the northwestern region of Copeland that Labour has held since 1935, the first by-election gain for a governing party for 35 years and a result that piles pressure on the opposition’s under-fire socialist leader, Jeremy Corbyn. In the central English seat of Stoke-on-Trent, Paul Nuttall, leader of the populist anti-EU UK Independence Party (Ukip), failed to overturn a Labour majority despite almost 70% of the city’s voters backing leaving the bloc at last year’s referendum, casting doubt on his future too. The Conservatives also increased their share of the vote in Stoke from the 2015 election. The two results point to May’s tightening grip on political power following the Brexit vote, and will be used as evid...
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