[1][2] Under the devolution agreement, the position holds the powers and responsibilities of a police and crime commissioner, meaning the occupant of the office cannot simultaneously sit as an MP.

[6] The seat's largest town, Batley, has a sizeable number of residents with South Asian backgrounds: Pakistani (9.2%) and Indian (15.9%) (mostly Gujarati), according to the 2001 census.

[24] Leadbeater had only recently rejoined the Labour Party,[25] with the Batley and Spen CLP waiving the requirement of a year's membership prior to her selection.

[27] In June 2021, Reform UK announced that they would not stand a candidate in the by-election in a bid to boost the Conservative Party's chances of taking the Labour-held seat.

[28] Paul Halloran, a locally well-known Brexit supporter who won over 6,000 votes for the Heavy Woollen District Independents at the previous election, also chose not to stand again, a decision which was expected to favour the Conservative candidate.

[26] On 26 May, the Yorkshire Party announced that its members had voted for Corey Robinson, a senior medical research engineer who spent his childhood in the constituency, to be their candidate.

[45] She said "I am the only person out of the 16 candidates that lives in Batley and Spen" and "I have a proven track record of getting things done at a local level and an established reputation for working for all parts of the community."

[49][50] More than 20 per cent of the electorate are of south Asian origin, and were a major focus of electioneering by Workers Party candidate George Galloway, who concentrated on the issues of the Palestinian territories, the Kashmir conflict, criticism of Labour leader Keir Starmer, the suspension of a teacher for showing a cartoon of Muhammad at Batley Grammar School and the reopening of a police station in Batley.

[55] On 26 June, Kim Leadbeater was heckled and chased by a group of men while campaigning, after being questioned about her support for LGBT rights and her party's position on Kashmir.

[56] The man who challenged her claimed to be speaking on behalf of Muslim parents in the region and had led protests against LGBT-inclusive teaching at schools in Birmingham.

[59] On 28 June, the Labour Party was criticised for distributing a leaflet featuring a photo of Boris Johnson with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

[60][61] In response, Labour MP Navendu Mishra accused his own party of having a "hierarchy of racism", with "some groups seen as fair game for attacks based on religion/race/heritage".

[62] The Conservative Party's surprise loss was blamed on their poor campaigning and a scandal that forced the resignation of Health Secretary Matt Hancock the weekend prior to the by-election.

"[71] Ronan Burtenshaw, editor of Tribune magazine, denied there was any cause for major celebration and insisted that "the result is clearly a shot in the arm for the party's beleaguered leadership.

It requires the building of a coalition on increasingly shifting sands – and that means, at a bare minimum, an enthusiastic base and a compelling vision for broader society.

[73] The New Arab's Taj Ali said the result made it clear that Labour was losing Muslim voters because of issues like Kashmir and Palestine, as well as a reluctance to investigate Islamophobia in the party.

[75] The Jewish Chronicle accused Galloway of running "one of the most tawdry by-election campaigns in memory", and said having him as the MP was "the last thing Batley and Spen needed".