The Conservative Party, in power in the United Kingdom, suffered a severe defeat in two by-elections against the Labor Party on Thursday, October 19, an ominous result for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Labor candidate Sarah Edwards won the seat of Tamworth in central England, once held by the Conservatives, by 1,316 votes, overshadowing a defeat of almost 20,000 votes in the previous election. The Conservatives also lost the seat of Mid-Bedfordshire (central England) by 1,192 votes, which they had won by 24,664 votes in 2019.
These two elections were held at a time when the rating of the head of government is at its lowest since he came to power almost a year ago. The Labor opposition, which has a large lead in the polls ahead of the expected UK-wide general elections in 2024, had itself described these seats as “very safe” for the Conservatives.
A “difficult” context locally
The latter themselves recognize that these two elections were held in a “difficult” context locally. The departure of the two deputies bears the mark of the Boris Johnson era, who had no other choice but to leave power in the summer of 2022 after a succession of scandals, first and foremost that of the parties organized in Downing Street in violation of the rules against Covid-19.
In Mid-Bedfordshire, the legislative by-election was organized due to the resignation of Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, an ardent defender of the former Prime Minister. The former culture minister quit her post as an MP after being denied a seat in the House of Lords, and accusing the current head of government of abandoning the “fundamental principles of conservatism”.
In the constituency of Tamworth, voters had to nominate the successor to Chris Pincher, at the heart of the affair which was fatal to Boris Johnson. At the end of June 2022, the MP grabbed the buttocks of one man and squeezed the private parts of another during an evening at the very exclusive Carlton Club in London, which once hosted the British Conservative Party.
Subjected in 2022 to intense pressure to say what he knew about Chris Pincher’s past on previous incidents, Boris Johnson had recognized an “error” in his appointment a few months earlier. After asserting the opposite, Downing Street ended up recognizing that Boris Johnson had been informed in 2019 of old accusations against Mr. Pincher, ensuring that he had “forgotten” them. Chris Pincher, MP for the constituency since 2010, ended up resigning after his appeal against his suspension of Parliament, which could in any case have given rise to a by-election, was rejected.