Campaign posters in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, ahead of key by-elections sparked after Conservative MP Imran Ahmed Khan was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor.
Daniel Harvey Gonzalez / In photos via Getty Images
LONDON – The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson suffered a double blow to the ballot box after his party lost two key parliamentary by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton.
Votes in opposite parts of England were seen as a litmus test for Johnson’s reputation after a series of scandals – including parties held on Downing Street during the blockade of Covid-19 – and a growing crisis in the cost of living.
The double defeats led to the immediate resignation of Conservative President Oliver Dowden, whose resignation letter said party supporters were “concerned and disappointed by recent events” and that “someone must take responsibility”.
Wakefield
The main opposition Labor Party has regained the former Wakefield Fortress in West Yorkshire from Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party. Labor candidate Simon Lightwood defeated Conservative candidate Nadim Ahmed by 4,925 votes after the Tories dropped 17.3 points in their share of the 2019 general election.
The Conservatives won Wakefield in 2019 for the first time since 1932, making the city one of 45 historic Labor sites that changed in the last general election. The Brexit-ready slogan and Johnson’s Brexit deal were at the heart of the campaign that tore down Labor’s red wall in traditional working-class centers in 2019.
Johnson’s party entered the election in Wakefield on Thursday with a small majority of 7.5 points.
The by-elections were prompted by the resignation of conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan after he was convicted of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at a party in 2008.
Labor leader Keir Starmer said the result showed the country had “lost confidence in the Tories”.
Tiverton and Honiton
In contrast, the Tiverton and Honiton constituencies in Devon have historically been seen as a “safe” place for conservatives, with the party winning 60% of the vote in 2019.
But the centrist Liberal Democrats, Britain’s third-largest party, stormed on Thursday to overturn a Conservative majority of more than 24,000 votes. Democrat nominee Richard Froud defeated Conservative nominee Helen Herford by more than 6,000 votes, recording a magnitude of almost 30%, one of the biggest changes in the midterm elections in British history.
The by-elections were sparked by the resignation of Conservative MP Neil Parish, who admitted to watching pornography in parliament.
The constituency became a target of significant resources for the Liberal Democrat campaign, which hoped to replicate the 34-point swing in which the party took North Shropshire from the Conservatives in December 2021.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davy told the BBC that the result was “a wake-up call for all those Conservative MPs who support Boris Johnson”, adding that “they cannot afford to ignore this result”.
What about Johnson now?
Prior to the closing of the elections in Wakefield and Tiverton, the prime minister rejected the idea that he would leave if he lost his seats as “crazy”.
Following Thursday’s results, he said he would “listen to the voters”, but promised to “move forward”, despite the apparent weakening of his electoral power.
Johnson narrowly survived a no-confidence vote among his own lawmakers earlier this month after a horrific report revealed the extent of violations of Downing Street rules and the nearby Whitehall government building during the pandemic.
Now the results of the midterm elections and the quick resignation of party chairman Dowden are likely to further heat up the hostile leader.
Voters’ main complaint appears to be the partygate scandal, which sparked national anger over political divisions and saw Johnson and Finance Minister Rishi Sunak receive fines from police for violating blocking rules.
The British newspaper The Telegraph reported earlier this week that conservative election leaflets and advertisements related to the by-elections in both West Yorkshire and Devon had either omitted references to Johnson altogether or made them significantly scarce.
Helen Herford, the Conservative Conservative candidate in Tiverton, was booed by City Hall voters last week after fleeing the question of the prime minister’s moral character.
Matt Singh, an election analyst and founder of Number Cruncher Politics, tweeted Friday that a tactical vote aimed at expelling conservatives, rather than supporting Labor or the Liberal Democrats in particular, was an important factor in the outcome.
“Labor lost their deposit at Tiverton and won Wakefield with a decent swing. The Liberal Democrats lost their deposit in Wakefield and won a huge swing in Tiverton. It’s a tactical vote on an industrial scale and it’s a big deal, “Singh said.
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