My point was that a lot of people don't keep up with politics and vote based purely on what they see on the slip or on their national preference. They will have no idea that the Labour candidate wasn't being supported. They see Labour, they tick a box. This shows that number isn't a high one.Is it really being swayed away from Labour when they didn't run a candidate and their party name was only on the ballot because of a technicality?
If you want to vote Labour, and Labour are publicly condemning and disavowing a candidate, and you know that he wouldn't be a Labour MP if he did win, you're not going to vote for the candidate on that basis.
It's not like it was a last minute change, they stopped supporting Ali over 2 weeks ago.
Anyone voting in a by-election is going to be at least slightly politically engaged and will have known that he wasn't really a Labour candidate anymore.
This also shows that a candidate can beat Labour on a single issue.