British Prime Minister Sunak avoids nullifying key local elections

[ad_1]

[1/3]British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak looks at No. 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, January 25, 2023. REUTERS/Toby Melville

An unexpected victory for the Conservatives in the old seat of former Prime Minister Johnson.

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives lost two strategically important parliamentary seats on Friday but unexpectedly kept Boris Johnson’s old constituency in a setback for the opposition Labor Party.

The by-election was one of the final electoral tests before a national election expected next year and was seen as an indication of the prospects for the two major parties at a time when voters are grappling with soaring inflation, strikes and soaring mortgage rates.

Sunak can take some comfort that his party narrowly avoided losing all three seats. But his troubles are highlighted by the loss of the former safe Conservative parliamentary seat of Selby and Ineste, where Labor has ousted the Conservatives’ majority in by-elections since the Second World War.

Labor leader Keir Starmer said the victory showed “how strong the demand for change is”.

The Conservatives suffered a crushing loss in another vote, but held Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip by less than 500 votes to ensure Sunak avoided becoming the first British leader to lose three by-elections in one day in more than half a century.

Sunak, a former finance minister and investment banker, has tried to use his technocratic leadership to restore the Conservatives’ credibility after a series of scandals last year forced Johnson to resign, and economic turmoil prompted his successor, Liz Truss, to step down after just six weeks.

He is expected to reshuffle his senior ministers soon to choose his team to run in the upcoming general elections.

With soaring inflation, recession, high mortgage rates, industrial unrest and long waiting times to use state-run health services, the Conservatives were on guard for the prospect of losing all three seats.

Sunak’s Conservative Party trails Labor by 20 points in national opinion polls, suggesting the ruling party will struggle to win a fifth consecutive general election.

But Labor’s loss in Oxbridge shows that its lead in opinion polls may not translate into a clear parliamentary majority in the next general election.

John Curtis, Britain’s most respected pollster, said that based on Labor’s performance in Oxbridge, the most likely outcome in the next general election was a hung parliament.

“The tide is still long for the Conservatives and they still have a very long way to go before it looks like they might have a chance to retain power after the next general election,” he told the BBC.

Work fragility?

The Oxbridge by-election was called after Johnson’s abrupt decision to walk out of Parliament last month after it emerged he had made misleading statements about parties held in Downing Street during the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson denied misleading Parliament, but Labor’s failure to take the seat came as a surprise.

The winning Tory candidate Steve Tuckwell said his party’s victory was due to local rather than national factors, pointing to the case of the Labor mayor of London who expanded his ultra-low emission zone to suburban areas such as Uxbridge, which meant some voters had to pay more for their cars.

Further results exposed Tory weaknesses on two fronts: the loss of the rural seat of Selby in the north of England, and one in the south-west, a traditional stronghold. The Conservatives won large majorities in both in the 2019 general election

Labor won Selby and Ainsty in Yorkshire by 4,000 votes, while the Conservatives were unable to defend a majority of 20,137. The seat fell vacant after an ally of Johnson resigned in solidarity with the former prime minister.

In Somerton and Frome in southwest England, the centrist Liberal Democrats have overturned a Conservative majority of 19,213 after a third Member of Parliament resigned over allegations of sexual harassment and cocaine use.

Curtis said Labor’s loss in Uxbridge showed the “potential fragility” of the party’s lead in the polls as the Conservatives continue to lose voters in the south.

He said the two main “leaders of political parties were left with something to think about in the wake of these results”.

Reporting by Andrew MacAskill. Editing by Elizabeth Piper, Tom Hogg, Robert Purcell and Simon Cameron-Moore

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[ad_2]