Tories shouldn’t deceive themselves over their Uxbridge win

Some Conservatives are going to take heart from the by-election results. They may have lost Somerset and Frome to the Liberal Democrats on a 29 per cent swing. Selby and Ainsty may have fallen to Labour, who overturned their biggest ever majority (20,137) at a by-election. But they held on in Boris Johnson’s former seat, Uxbridge and South Ruislip. By just 495 votes, mind you, but a win is a win. Labour is blaming its defeat on local opposition to Sadiq Khan’s Ulez policy. 

The lesson some Tories will take from this is that they must pivot to champion ordinary people, particularly motorists, over policies to limit carbon emissions. Put Sir Keir Starmer on the wrong side of the very workers he has to win back to form a Labour government. There are a few problems with this. 

One, voters aren’t stupid. It was the Tories — Boris Johnson himself — who introduced the first ultra low emission zone.