What are the challenges facing the new Batley and Spen MP Kim Leadbeater?
Get the latest Huddersfield news and updates delivered straight to your inbox - sign up for free email updates Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice  Labour may have defied the odds to cling on to Batley and Spen but as winner Kim Leadbeater knows only too well, the battle to bring this by-election hardened community back together has only just begun. Once again the people of Batley and Spen have had to endure another by-election in which the tensions and divisions that exist in this community have been pulled apart and exposed for the national media to witness. This has been an election that political outsiders have capitalised on for their own gain, leaving the people here to pick up the pieces. READ MORE: We asked people in Batley and Spen how they voted - this is what they said  Ms Leadbeater's first task, then, is to unite this community once again after the latest journey into the divisive and toxic politics that has been associated with Batley and Spen since the shocking murder of her sister and the constituency's popular and much loved former MP Jo Cox. As one resident told YorkshireLive on polling day: "It has been like a circus. "You can't come down here and shop without some kind of a camera or a pamphlet being put in your face. "We just want to get it done." Ms Leadbeater must then work towards repairing the strained relationship between residents and the local council. To get the latest email updates from Examiner Live, click here . Time and again residents expressed frustration with the council for the poor state of the roads, the level of fly tipping in the area and the anti social behaviour that plagues the constituency and puts pressure on community cohesion. Kirklees council lay the blame for those problems at the Tories' programme of austerity and its decision to cut the council's budget, but Ms Leadbeater must stand up to the local council where necessary to improve the living standards of everyone who lives here. Dewsbury and Huddersfield are prime examples of what collegiate politics can achieve for an area. Both town centres are currently undergoing massive regeneration, to the tune of 200m and 250m respectively - visions that would unquestionably benefit Batley town centre, which is frequently described as "left behind" and as somewhere that has "gone down hill". Much has been said about what Batley and Spen will do for Boris Johnson's Tories and Keir Starmer's Labour. Now the question must now be what politics can do for an area that has been neglected for too long.