The Conservatives have faced defeat in both of this week’s by-elections in the constituencies of Tiverton & Honiton and Wakefield, an outcome which has prompted party chairman, Oliver Dowden, to step down.
The Tories lost the Devon seat of Tiverton & Honiton to the Liberal Democrats, who overturned a Conservative majority of 24,239 that had been set down at the 2019 general election.
The victory in Devon was the third by-election victory for the Lib Dems over the Tories in the space of a year following 2021 by-election wins in Chesham & Amersham and North Shropshire.
Lib Dem candidate Richard Foord took 22,537 votes on Thursday to achieve a majority over the Conservatives of 6,144.
The victor and new MP for Tiverton & Honiton said following the result: “Tonight, the people of Tiverton & Honiton have spoken for Britain. They've sent a loud and clear message: It's time for Boris Johnson to go and go now.”
Meanwhile, having lost the West Yorkshire seat of Wakefield in 2019, Labour won back the seat in Thursday’s by-election, a victory that was hailed by party leader Sir Keir Starmer as indicative that the next government “will be a Labour government.”
Sir Keir said: “The country voted yesterday, in both by-elections, no confidence in this out of touch, out of ideas government.”
Labour candidate Simon Lightwood saw off Conservative rival Nadeem Ahmed by 4,925 votes, to overturn a Conservative majority of 3,358 from 2019.
Lightwood said in his victory speech: “The people of Wakefield have spoken on behalf of the British people. They have said, unreservedly: ‘Boris Johnson, your contempt for this country is no longer tolerated.’”
Responding to the results from a meeting of Commonwealth leaders in Rwanda, prime minister Boris Johnson said that the Conservatives had to “keep going” and do more.
“We've got to recognise there is more we've got to do, and we certainly will. We will keep going, addressing the concerns of people until we get through this patch,” the PM said.
However, the PM’s defiance proved insufficient for Tory chairman Oliver Dowden [pictured] to stay in post.
Writing to the PM following the by-election losses, Dowden said: “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.”
Dowden said that he had taken this “deeply personal decision” entirely of his own accord, following a “run of very poor results” for the Tories at the polls.
The by-election defeats come amid the fallout of the Partygate saga which has brought major backlash against the government, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
The PM himself also had to survive a confidence vote by his own Tory MPs earlier in June.
Sir Keir said that the by-election defeats in the wake of Tory controversies and now the resignation of Dowden showed that the Conservatives were “imploding”.
However, senior Conservatives suggested that the losses were not unexpected amid a “perfect storm” of “very difficult local scenarios” and “distractions”.
Deputy PM Dominic Raab said: “My view is that the by-elections, both of them, were the result of the perfect storm of very difficult local scenarios.”
Raab added that the results had followed incidents around the conduct of the previously sitting Tory MPs and “the distractions” around Partygate.
He said: “I think we've had distractions because of Partygate, because of too much Westminster internal focus when people want to see us focused on their priorities.
“We're going to be relentlessly focused on delivery, not allow the distractions of recent times to take our eye off the ball.”
The by-election in Tiverton & Honiton came about after sitting Conservative MP, Neil Parish, resigned after being caught watching pornography in the House of Commons.
The previous Tory MP for Wakefield, Imran Ahmad Khan, was forced to step down after sexually assaulting a minor. He has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Home secretary, Priti Patel, echoed her colleague’s view that the by-elections had been contested against a “difficult and challenging backdrop” and that the losses were of no surprise.
The results have seen the Conservative majority in the House of Commons fall to 68 MPs, having stood at 80 after the 2019 general election.
Elsewhere, the latest outcomes at the polls have reawakened the prime minister’s critics.
Conservative MP Simon Hoare shared his sympathies with outgoing chairman Dowden, saying that he was “honourable” and “not responsible” for the results, while longstanding critic of Johnson, Sir Roger Gale, said that they were “another vote of no-confidence in a prime minister that ought to honourably this morning be re-considering his position”.
Senior Conservative Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, treasurer of the 1922 Committee, said that his colleagues needed to think “very carefully about the future” and how to “remedy the situation” before the next general election, currently scheduled for 2024.
He said: “We will have to make some difficult decisions, no doubt.
“We have seen a very serious and large defeat in two seats in two different areas of the country. If there were a by-election in my seat tomorrow it would be difficult to hold.”
Sir Geoffrey, the MP for The Cotswolds, holds a majority of over 20,000 votes in his constituency following the result of the 2019 general election.
Image taken from Wikimedia Commons
