A month after dad Alan celebrated winning a seat on Fenland District Council, son Paul is licking his wounds after coming third in the Parliamentary by-election in Peterborough.

Bristow senior retained his seat on Whittlesey Town Council last month and also won a place on Fenland District Council.

Son Paul, however, experienced less good fortune in Peterborough as Labour unexpectedly clung on to the seat with the Brexit Party in second place and the Tories reduced to third place.

Not that Paul Bristow is unfamiliar with Parliamentary disappointment; his first foray into national politics was nine years ago in Middlesborough South and East Cleveland.

He impressed by increasing the Conservative vote share by 3.8 percentage points, cutting an 8,000 vote majority to 1,677.

Paul, who was once a Hammersmith councillor in London, is knee deep in experience in trying to become an MP. In 2013 he made it the short list to replace Jim Paice in SE Cambridgeshire before losing out to Lucy Frazer (although that followed some debate as to whether or not Heidi Allen had actually come first in a members' ballot).

A year later Paul made it to the final four Tory hopefuls for the Boston and Skegness constituency but Matt Warman went on to win the seat for the party. In 2018 Paul also got down to the final three for the marginal seat in Bedford where Labour has a 789 vote majority, losing out to a local councillor Ryan Henson.

For now it will back to the day job for Paul, running his public affairs consultancy.

"It was one hell of a ride," he tweeted after his Peterborough defeat. "Thanks to everyone who helped with my campaign; you were amazing. Sorry I didn't make it across the line. Timing is everything in politics."

And he offered congratulations to winning Labour candidate Lisa Forbes before adding that "most fun was winning people over on the doorstep - clearly a lot more of that to do"

The by-election was called after Fiona Onasanya, MP since 2017, was convicted of lying over a speeding ticket.

The Brexit Party had been odds-on favourites to win the by election in a constituency where 61 per cent of people voted to leave the EU in the referendum.

Fiona's successor Lisa Forbes said after the result was announced that her win had shown that "the politics of hope can win regardless of the odds".

The Brexit Party had been odds-on favourites to win the by election in a constituency where 61 per cent of people voted to leave the EU in the referendum.