Campaign in Copeland? I get car sick, says Labour MP

So far, Labour’s by-election defeat in Copeland has been blamed on everything from Tony Blair to a lack of Labour voters owning cars. However, on last night’s Question Time, Dawn Butler came up with an excuse even Mr S hadn’t heard before.

Discussing the by-election which saw Labour lose the one-time safe seat to the Tories, the MP for Brent Central explained to David Dimbleby that she hadn’t actually been able to go up to campaign as she… gets car sick:

DB: I didn’t go to Copeland as I suffer from car sickness and I heard the roads are really bad. But I did a lot of phone…

DD: That doesn’t sound like a warrior…

DB: I didn’t think I’d be much good to them getting there all green and sick.

DD: Don’t you ever go by car any distance?

Happily, Liz Truss was also on the panel. The Justice Secretary chipped in that when she had gone up to campaign in Copeland she had travelled by train:

LT: Or train?

DB: Well, you need to fix the train system in Copeland, that’s another thing…

LT: I got the train to Copeland

Although Dimbleby described Butler’s excuse as the ‘most ingenuous explanation’, it’s further evidence that Corbyn’s Labour has become a London-centric party — isolated from its one-time heartlands.