Voters go to the polls TODAY in Birmingham Erdington by-election

Voters will today cast their ballots in the Birmingham Erdington by-election which was triggered by the death of popular Labour frontbencher Jack Dromey. 

Labour held the seat at the 2019 general election as Mr Dromey secured a majority of 3,601 votes over the Conservatives in second place. 

The polls opened at 7am and will close at 10pm, with a result expected to be announced in the early hours of Friday morning. 

Paulette Hamilton is contesting the seat for Labour, while fellow city councillor Robert Alden is vying to become the first Tory MP there since 1936. 

The by-election, which has a field of 12 candidates in total, is taking place after a row erupted yesterday over past comments made by Ms Hamilton.         

Footage from 2015 emerged from an event organised by the Organisation of Black Unity, in which she claimed to be unable to decide between voting and an uprising as the best way to achieve political aims.

Paulette Hamilton is contesting the seat for Labour, while fellow city councillor Robert Alden is vying to become the first Tory MP there since 1936

The Birmingham Erdington by-election was triggered by the death of popular Labour frontbencher Jack Dromey

Labour is the favourite to win today’s by-election and anything but a victory for Sir Keir Starmer’s party would be seen as a major upset.

The Conservatives have come close in the past when they lost by just 231 votes in 1983, when leader Margaret Thatcher was at the peak of her powers after the Falklands War.

Boris Johnson’s party has been struggling in the national polls as the Prime Minister has been battered by Partygate allegations.

The family of Mr Dromey, a shadow minister married to Labour grandee Harriet Harman, said he died suddenly at the age of 73 in his flat in the constituency in January.

The former leading trade unionist had represented Birmingham Erdington since 2010. He is understood to have died from natural causes. 

Labour yesterday faced calls from Tory MPs to condemn comments made by Ms Hamilton in 2015. 

In footage first uncovered by GB News she is shown saying: ‘So you talk about the bullet or the vote. I’m not sure, although I believe in the vote and I believe in our right to use that vote or destroy that vote, I’m not sure that we will get what we really deserve in this country using the vote.

‘But I don’t know if we are a strong enough group to get what we want to get if we have an uprising. I think we will be quashed in such a way we would lose a generation of our young people. So I’m very torn.’

Tory MP Scott Benton said: ‘Shocking to think this person could be an MP by tomorrow evening. Deplorable comments which Labour need to condemn immediately.’

But a Labour source told the BBC: ‘These attacks on a black woman seeking to become the city’s first black MP are deeply disturbing.

‘Her comments are being misrepresented and taken out of context as part of a deliberate attempt by the Conservatives and their allies to hijack a democratic election.’