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.

  • mark@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • frankPodmore@slrpnk.netM
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      1 year ago

      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!

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • theinspectorst@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • G4Z@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Yeah you are so right, and I don’t buy the ULEZ excuse either, nobody is excited for vote for Keith, are they?