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Double for UK’s Boris Johnson as he loses two key by-elections


Campaign posters in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, ahead of a key by-election were activated after Conservative MP Imran Ahmed Khan was found guilty of sexually assaulting a minor.

Daniel Harvey Gonzalez / In Pictures via Getty Images

LONDON – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a double hit to the ballot box as his party lost two key parliamentary elections in Wakefield and Tiverton.

The votes, at opposite ends of Britain, have been seen as a knee-jerk test of Johnson’s standing after a series of scandals – including parties held in Downing Street during the Covid-19 lockdown – and a Rising cost of living crisis.

The double defeat prompted the immediate resignation of Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden, whose resignation said party supporters were “distressed and disappointed by recent events” and that “someone must responsible.”

Wakefield

The main opposition Labor Party has regained its former stronghold of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, from Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party. Labor candidate Simon Lightwood defeated Conservative Party candidate Nadeem Ahmed by 4,925 votes as the Tories family dropped 17.3 points in their share of the vote from the 2019 General Election.

The Conservatives won Wakefield in 2019 for the first time since 1932, with the city becoming one of 45 Labor-voted seats in history to have been overturned in the last general election. Johnson’s “Get Brexit done” and “ready to go” slogans Brexit The deal is at the heart of Labour’s campaign to tear down “red walls” across traditional working-class lands in 2019.

Johnson’s party entered Thursday’s Wakefield election with a 7.5-point majority.

The by-election was kicked off by the resignation of Conservative Member of Parliament Imran Ahmad Khan after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy at a party in 2008.

Labor leader Keir Starmer said the results showed the country “has lost confidence in the Tories.”

Tiverton and Honiton

By contrast, the Tiverton and Honiton constituencies, in Devon, have so far been seen as a “safe” seat for the Conservative Party, with the party winning 60% of the vote in 2019.

But the centre-right Liberal Democrats, the third-largest party in Britain, won on Thursday to oust the Conservatives’ more than 24,000-vote majority. Lib Dem candidate Richard Frood defeated Conservative Helen Hurford by more than 6,000 votes, or nearly 30%, in one of the biggest by-election swings in British history.

The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Conservative MP Neil Parish, who admitted viewing pornography in Parliament.

The constituency has been the target of key campaign resources for the Lib Dems, who hope to repeat the 34-point turnaround that saw the party take North Shropshire from the Conservatives in December. year 2021.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey told the BBC the result was “a wake-up call to all Conservative MPs who support Boris Johnson”, adding that they “can’t ignore this result.”

Now what to do for Johnson?

Before ending polls in Wakefield and Tiverton, the prime minister dismissed the notion that he would quit if he lost his seat as “crazy”.

After Thursday’s results, he said he would “listen to the voters” but vowed to “keep going”, despite his electoral power clearly waning.

Johnson narrowly survived a vote of confidence among its own MPs earlier this month, after a damn report reveals the extent of the rule breaking at Downing Street and the nearby Whitehall government building during the pandemic.

Now, the by-election results and the swift resignation of Chairman Dowden are likely to add to the heat on the embattled leader.

The main draw for voters appears to be the “partisan” scandal, which has raged the nation through political divisions and seen Johnson and Finance Minister Rishi Sunak receive fines from the police. for violating containment rules.

Britain’s The Telegraph reported earlier this week that Conservative campaign flyers and adverts relating to by-elections in both West Yorkshire and Devon either omitted mentions of Johnson altogether, or making them considerably scarce.

Helen Hurford, the Conservative candidate in Tiverton, was booed by voters at a town hall last week after dodging a question about the prime minister’s conduct.

Matt Singh, election analyst and founder of Number Cruncher Politics, emphasized in a tweet on Friday that tactical voting is aimed at toppling the Conservatives, rather than backing Labor or the Liberal Democrats. , is an important factor in the results.

Singh said: “The worker lost his deposit in Tiverton and won Wakefield.



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