As far as seismic by-election results go, North Shropshire is one for the ages. The Tories had held onto the seat for 200 years before they lost to the Liberal Democrats last night. And their majority at the last general election was over 22,000. The Lib Dems managed to increase their share of the vote from 10 to 47 per cent, leapfrogging Labour in the process.
But is North Shropshire the beginning of a Lib Dems resurgence? And, more importantly, how worried should the Conservative party be about the party’s rise?
For starters, this is an even worse result for the Tories than their Chesham and Amersham by-election loss to the Lib Dems in June. North Shropshire is also a much more impressive win for the Lib Dems.
Even if this was a just a protest vote, it was one of such gigantic proportions it can’t be that easily dismissed
The Chesham and Amersham by-election was fought over a Remain-voting London commuter belt seat filled with liberal voters who generally plumped for the Conservatives to keep their taxes low, rather than dyed-in-the-wool Tories.
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