London: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s governing Conservative Party suffered huge losses in two by-elections Friday, losing to the Opposition Labour Party, which overturned a sizeable Tory majority in the seats of Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth in England.
While Sunak is touring the Middle East for crisis talks over the Israel-Gaza conflict, Labour leader Keir Starmer declared that his party was “redrawing the political map.”
Labour made history in Mid Bedfordshire by overcoming a 24,664 Tory majority to win the seat for the first time and pulled off a 23.9 per cent swing to Labour from the Tories in Tamworth.
“Winning in these Tory strongholds shows that people overwhelmingly want change and they’re ready to put their faith in our changed Labour Party to deliver it,” said Starmer.
By-elections ahead of a general election year are seen as reflective of the mood of the electorate and the governing Tories will be shaken up by the results. The historic results mark the second-highest-ever by-election swing to Labour. With the Tories also trailing in the nationwide opinion polls, the results will be a welcome boost to Labour ahead of an expected general election in 2024.
Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands said the results were “disappointing” but blamed the outcome on Tory voters not voting.
“Clearly for us, I think it is right that a number of our voters are unhappy with the government. We clearly have a job to do to win them back,” he told the BBC.
Former Cabinet minister and Boris Johnson loyalist Nadine Dorries’ prolonged resignation in Mid Bedfordshire is believed to have caused much damage in the eastern England seat. In Tamworth in the West Midlands, MP Chris Pincher resigned after being found to have drunkenly misbehaved.
Greg Hands admitted that “fury” locally among voters about the background to the by-elections was partially to blame for the Tory defeats.
PTI