Blow for Rishi Sunak as UK Conservatives suffer two damaging by-election losses
- By-elections were held in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth, two parliamentary seats considered ‘super safe’ for Tories
- Outcome boosts Labour leader Keir Starmer’s hopes of becoming prime minister in a UK vote expected next year
Britain’s ruling Conservative Party lost two parliament seats to Labour on Friday, another ominous setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his party ahead of a general election expected next year.
The by-election results – the latest in a string of traditionally safe Tory seats lost to rival parties in recent years – saw Labour overturn huge majorities to further fuel hopes of a return to power after nearly 14 years in opposition.
Labour had played down its prospects in the Conservatives’ previously “super safe” seats of Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire, both in central England, which became vacant after their MPs quit, including one following sexual misconduct allegations.
But Britain’s ailing economy, the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades and several years of scandal and tumult within the Tories – who had three leaders within three months last year – helped trigger the historic outcome.
In Mid Bedfordshire, a Conservative-held seat for almost a century, Labour overturned a majority of nearly 25,000 – the biggest swing at a by-election since 1945.
Jubilant Labour leader Keir Starmer hailed the “phenomenal results” as showing his party “is back in the service of working people and redrawing the political map”.
