LONDON – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s party has suffered a double by-election defeat in safe Tory seats, with Labour and the Liberal Democrats both overturning majorities of about 20,000, reported German news agency (dpa).
Labour won Selby and Ainsty, and the Lib Dems took Somerton and Frome on sizable swings, which will leave many Tory MPs looking nervously at their own majorities.
But the Tory leader was spared the prospect of being the first prime minister since 1968 to lose three by-elections on the same day as Labour failed to secure victory in Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Tory Steve Tuckwell held on with a majority of just 495, down from the 7,210 Johnson secured in 2019.
In Selby and Ainsty, 25-year-old Keir Mather will become the youngest MP in the Commons after overturning a 20,137 majority.
For the Lib Dems, a 29.0 percentage point swing in Somerton and Frome saw a 19,213 Tory majority turned into a 11,008-vote cushion for new MP Sarah Dyke.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the Somerton and Frome result showed his party was once again winning votes in its former West Country heartland.
“The people of Somerton and Frome have spoken for the rest of the country who are fed up with Rishi Sunak’s out-of-touch Conservative government,” he said.
The victory means Sir Ed has become the first party leader since Paddy Ashdown in the 1990s to win four by-elections.
For Labour, the failure to secure victory in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London has led to a blame game among senior figures over the capital’s mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to expand the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to cover outer boroughs.
Labour candidate Danny Beales had distanced himself from the policy, saying it was “not the right time” to expand the daily charge for cars which fail to meet emissions standards.
In his victory speech, new MP Tuckwell said Khan had cost Labour the seat.
“It was his damaging and costly Ulez policy that lost them this election,” he said.
“This wasn’t the campaign Labour expected and Keir Starmer and his mayor Sadiq Khan need to sit up and listen to the Uxbridge and South Ruislip residents.”- Bernama
