Given the universal forecasts of the Tories taking a proper pasting in yesterday’s elections, it is quite something for Rishi Sunak’s party to have done worse than expected. But a truly dismal result in the Blackpool South parliamentary by-election, coupled with early council results indicating the party could end up losing half of the thousand or so seats it was defending, show that Sunak has managed to do just that.
In Blackpool, the Conservatives picked up just 3,218 votes, compared to 16,247 at the 2019 general election. Labour took the seat with 10,825 votes, compared to the 12,557 it lost with in 2019.
Is it a crumb of comfort that apathy could therefore be said to be the true winner of the by-election? Hardly.
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