Voting in the county of North Yorkshire: The by-elections were comparatively bad for the governing Conservatives.
(Photo: AP)
London The ruling Conservative Party in Britain lost seats in two constituencies in by-elections for the House of Commons but narrowly held out in a third constituency. The Liberal Democrats won in Somerton and Frome in the western English county of Somerset, and the Social Democratic Labor Party in Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire, as the respective election officers announced early Friday morning.
In the West London Borough of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, the former seat of ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, there is once again a Conservative MP. The Tories defended the district by a slim majority of just 495 votes. Previously, all three districts were in conservative hands.
The ruling party of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made serious losses, but narrowly escaped a triple defeat. A general election is expected to be held in the UK next year.
parliamentary elections next year
The Tories are currently trailing the largest opposition party, Labour, in the polls. The fact that ex-Prime Minister Johnson’s constituency was retained is seen as a small glimmer of hope for the ruling party.
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Sunak needs to restore his party’s credibility after a series of scandals surrounding Johnson. Johnson resigned last month after a parliamentary committee concluded he had lied about the “Partygate” affair during the coronavirus pandemic.
The government is also struggling with high inflation, economic stagnation, strikes and the state health system crisis. Sunak’s Conservatives are 20 percentage points behind Labor in the opinion polls.
However, the defeat in Uxbridge raises doubts as to whether the lead in the polls can also be converted into a parliamentary majority. A majority of Britons now also consider Brexit to be the wrong decision.
According to the expectations of most observers, Prime Minister Sunak should call the by-elections for November 2024 – in the hope that the currently bad mood in the country against the conservatives could then have turned again.
More: How the government and opposition in London are struggling with their goals.