British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's governing Conservative Party suffered huge losses in two by-elections on Friday. Opposition Labour Party's Alistair Strathern and Sarah Edwards won the elections in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth respectively.
The outcome of the by-elections show that the voters in Tamworth, central England and Mid-Bedfordshire, north of London switched from Conservatives to Labour.
Labour Party made history in Mid Bedfordshire by overcoming 24,664 Tory majority to win the seat for the first time. It also pulled out a 23.9 per cent swing to Labour from the Tories in Tamworth.
Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer declared that his party is confident that it could compete everywhere and win seats in parts of the country they had never won before. "History is in the making," said Starmer.
Strathern, MP for Mid Bedfordshire grew up in Bedfordshire and worked as a maths teacher before joining the Bank of England. He was a councillor and cabinet members on Waltham Forest Council in East London.
Born in Moseley, Sarah Edwards worked for Oxfam on fundraising and events and later for Unite the Union. She was a former NHS governor.
Ahead of the UK general elections, by-elections are significant as they reflect the mood of the electorate. The results will be a welcome boost to Labour ahead of an expected general election in 2024.
Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands said the results were "disappointing".
Labour candidate Sarah Edwards won in Tamworth, where the Conservatives won by almost 20,000 votes in 2019, and Labour's Alistair Strathern took Mid-Bedfordshire by overturning a 25,000-vote Tory margin, reported AP.
Tamworth legislator Chris Pincher quit after allegations of inappropirate behaviour of groping two men at London private members' club surfaced.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's reluctance to sanction Pincher when the allegations emerged helped trigger Johnson's ouster at the hands of his own party last year.
Mid-Bedfordshire member of Parliament Nadine Dorries resigned over the treatment of Johnson and her own failure to be appointed to Parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords.
Dorries is a strong ally of Johnson who has blamed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for helping to topple the former leader.
Clearly, the results add to pressure on the governing party, which has lost by-elections since PM Sunak took over.
Sunak replaced Liz Truss, who quit in October 2022 after her plan for unfunded tax cuts sent financial markets into turmoil and rocked the economy. Though Sunak steadied the economy, it has not managed to boost the party's rating in opinion polls.
(With agencies inputs)
