Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives on Friday suffered two crushing UK parliamentary by-election defeats but averted a “3-0” drubbing by unexpectedly holding on to Boris Johnson’s old Uxbridge seat.
The grave problems facing the British prime minister were highlighted when the opposition Labour party secured its biggest-ever by-election win in the once-safe Tory seat of Selby and Ainsty in Yorkshire.
Earlier the centrist Liberal Democrats demolished a massive Tory majority to win the seat of Somerton and Frome, opening up a dangerous new front for Sunak in the Tory heartlands of England’s South West.
Fantastic result for the Lib Dems! And it wasn’t even close. A new majority of 11000. This has got to give so much confidence going into next year that they can pick up lots of seats.
At the very least, it means the Tories will have some serious headaches about which seats to put resources in to. Good news for any opposition party!
And from the interviews with voters I’ve heard, there was a lot of tactical voting going on - a lot people will vote for whoever can get the Tories out.
Lib Dems turning a 19,000 Tory majority into an 11,000 Lib Dem majority in a Leave-voting rural seat
vs
Labour almost overturning the 7,000 majority in the London seat of a disgraced former PM
Do Labour just have no idea how to do by-elections? They should have won Uxbridge with their eyes closed.
Yeah you are so right, and I don’t buy the ULEZ excuse either, nobody is excited for vote for Keith, are they?