Tories Lose Two Key By-elections on Same Night

By Staff, Agencies

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a double hammer blow to his authority after the Conservatives lost the Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton by-elections on the same night, prompting Oliver Dowden, the party chair, to resign.

Labor took Wakefield, while the Liberal Democrats overturned a 24,000-plus majority to snatch Tiverton and Honiton.

The Tiverton and Honiton result, where the Lib Dem candidate, Richard Foord, defeated the Tories’ Helen Hurford by 6,144 votes to take a constituency that has been Conservative in its various forms for well over a century, is believed to be the biggest numerical majority ever overturned in a by-elections.

A Labor win in Wakefield was more expected given Labor had consistently held the seat before the 2019 election, but the 4,925 majority for Simon Lightwood against the Conservatives’ Nadeem Ahmed is a major boost for Keir Starmer in the battle to regain “red wall” seats.

Johnson is in Rwanda for the Commonwealth heads of government summit, before travelling to the G7 and NATO summits in Germany and Spain, keeping him out of the country for the next week. But in his absence, the double loss could push Tory backbenchers to try to restart efforts to oust him.

In a letter to Johnson, Dowden said the by-elections were “the latest in a run of very poor results for our party,” adding: “Our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings.”

“We cannot carry on with business as usual. Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office.

Sir Roger Gale, a Tory MP and longtime critic of Johnson, said voters “have sent a very clear message of no confidence in the prime minister, and we have to recognize that.”

Although Johnson won a confidence vote earlier this month, he should go, Gale told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “An honorable prime minister, even at this stage, would now reconsider his position.”

A sense that Johnson is no longer an electoral asset, coupled with the parties, could result in Tory MPs turning decisively against the prime minister, although a new challenge is viewed as unlikely before autumn.