Labor is “shell-shocked” at the “terrible” result of a NSW by-election that saw its primary vote slide backwards and the center-right Liberal-National government retain the marginal seat, NSW opposition leader Jodi McKay says. McKay told reporters on Sunday she was “devastated” by the Upper Hunter result. The Upper Hunter is a coal mining region. “We did not think that the result would be the way it is,” she said. “We didn’t expect that our vote would go to independents, we didn’t expect our vote to be torn away as it was.” Labor conceded defeat on Sunday, with both McKay and ALP candidate Jeff Drayton congratulating their Nationals counterparts. McKay admitted her party needed to do some “really genuine soul-searching” to figure out why it was not resonating with voters. Nobody in her party room has asked her to step down or issued a challenge to her role. She said that blaming …