{"id":677414,"date":"2026-05-17T21:46:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T21:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/677414\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T21:46:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T21:46:31","slug":"stafford-byelection-queensland-labor-backs-steven-miles-despite-swing-against-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/677414\/","title":{"rendered":"Stafford byelection: Queensland Labor backs Steven Miles, despite swing against party"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Queensland Labor figures say they\u2019re humbled by a sharp decline in the party\u2019s primary support in a heartland seat, but leader Steven Miles has the backing of the party room and will not face an imminent challenge.<\/p>\n

Labor\u2019s Luke Richmond claimed victory<\/a> in Saturday\u2019s Stafford byelection, despite the party\u2019s primary vote trailing the LNP\u2019s Fiona Hammond by nearly 10 per cent.<\/p>\n

Richmond will join parliament due to a flow of preferences, primarily from the Greens.<\/p>\n

\"StevenSteven Miles spoke in Stafford on Sunday, flanked by possible future leaders Shannon Fentiman (left) and Cameron Dick, factional heavyweight Grace Grace, and winning Labor candidate Luke Richmond. William Davis<\/p>\n

External pressure will heap on Miles after Labor\u2019s margin was trimmed to about 1 per cent in the inner-northern Brisbane seat the party has largely held this century, but there is no current move within the party room for a leadership spill.<\/p>\n

This masthead was told MPs believe it is crucial that Labor acknowledges it was sent a message in the byelection, however a low voter turnout and the absence of a One Nation candidate were cited as influences in fracturing the progressive vote.<\/p>\n

The party room\u2019s long-held view is that a leader needs two years in the role before the late-2028 state election, after internal analysis blamed Labor\u2019s 2024 loss on Miles only having 10 months lead-in time before the poll.<\/p>\n

\"OppositionOpposition Leader Steven Miles and Stafford candidate Luke Richmond celebrate Labor\u2019s narrow byelection win.Matt Dennien<\/p>\n

Primary support in the mid-thirties was suggested as a key indicator for Miles to continue as opposition leader beyond Christmas. Labor\u2019s current core support was 28 per cent<\/a>, according to the most recent Resolve Strategic poll conducted for this masthead.<\/p>\n

Miles fronted a press conference in the Stafford electorate on Sunday with Richmond and a number of Labor MPs, in a clear show of solidarity before leadership speculation dominates coverage of the byelection wash-up.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Queensland<\/a><\/p>\n

The opposition leader said he believed it was a good result under the circumstances, attributing the primary-vote swing against Labor to the absence of a One Nation candidate, as well as the unusually high number of candidates (nine).<\/p>\n

\u201cLabor was never under any illusions \u2026 the odds were stacked against us,\u201d Miles said.<\/p>\n

The former premier said he had \u201cabsolutely\u201d every intention of leading Labor to the 2028 election.<\/p>\n

Cameron Dick and Shannon Fentiman \u2013 who are routinely touted as leadership contenders \u2013 stood alongside Miles on Sunday and said they had complete faith in his position.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteven has been doing a fantastic job, and we are all united behind him,\u201d Fentiman told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly there is more work to do, but Steven is absolutely the best person to lead us, and we are 100 per cent behind him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Factional heavyweight Grace Grace similarly doubled down on her loyalty to the leader.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Sunday, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie continued to agitate about Miles\u2019 leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said a lot about Steven Miles and he\u2019s goneski \u2013 he\u2019s done like a Sunday roast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results were in last night and it\u2019s clear that Steven Miles\u2019 leadership is in absolute tatters.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done, and the Labor Party know it, and they might as well just get on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DeputyDeputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has continued to speculate about the Labor leadership.Cameron Atfield<\/p>\n

Paul Williams, an expert in Queensland politics at Griffith University, said the tight margin was expected in Stafford due to the relative popularity of the Crisafulli government.<\/p>\n

But he described the public narrative from Miles that momentum was growing for Labor as \u201cnonsense\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Voters] don\u2019t buy it \u2013 they know Labor\u2019s gone backwards from 2024,\u201d Williams told this masthead on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very hard to see how Steven Miles would lead the party to the 2028 election. It\u2019s a long bow to draw to ask the electorate to re-endorse him when he\u2019s been rejected once \u2013 that\u2019s just a standard motif in Australian politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"JamesJames Hall<\/a> is the News Director at the Brisbane Times. He is the former Queensland correspondent at The Australian Financial Review and has reported for a range of mastheads across the country, specialising on political and finance reporting.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-677414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}