What an epically horrible night for the Conservative part, one of the worst in the party’s long and storied history. Tamworth and Mid-Bedfordshire, before yesterday the 57th and 98th safest Tory seats in the country respectively, fell to the Labour party. As if that weren’t enough, these by-elections also revealed that Rishi Sunak is in an even worse position than the current polls suggest – and the current polls suggest something approaching electoral apocalypse for the Prime Minister.
The Lib Dems in Mid-Bedfordshire claim that they helped Labour win the seat yesterday. The theory they have posited is that, with their tireless campaigning in the more rural portions of the seat, they helped flip a score of people who were previously solid Tory voters. These would have been people annoyed at this government, but who for various reasons would never vote Labour. In other words, the Lib Dems are saying that they acted as a repository for Conservative voters to register a protest vote.
To lose two previously safe seats, even with all the caveats, is a disaster for Sunak
Now, this could very well be Lib Dem spin.
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