Labor Mid Bedfordshire by-election candidate Alistair Strathearn meets with local activists while campaigning in the constituency ahead of the by-election. : Victoria Jones/PA
Labour is paying for ads urging traditional Lib Dem supporters to “tactically vote” to oust the Conservatives from Nadine Dorries' former seat this week. Alistair Strathern, Labour's candidate for Mid Bedfordshire, said he needed supporters from other parties to “lend me their votes this time” to win the constituency.
Rishi Sunak faces two difficult by-elections. this Thursday in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth in Staffordshire. The Mid Bedfordshire contest began when Ms Dorries belatedly left the House of Commons in protest at her failure to receive a peerage in Boris Johnson's resignation honors list.
The Tamworth by-election, meanwhile, began when Chris Pincher resigned as MP after losing his appeal against an eight-week suspension for drunkenly groping two men. The House of Commons Standards Committee found “on the balance of probabilities” that he attacked two men at the Carlton Club in London in June 2022.
Although the Conservatives won both seats with overwhelming majorities in the last general election, the party is currently trailing Labor significantly nationally polls and lost two by-elections in July in Somerton and Frome, and in Selby and Ainsty, where there had previously been a healthy Tory majority.
But the party hopes that in Mid Bedfordshire a bitter campaign by Labor and the Lib Dems can split the anti-Tory vote and allow them to hang on.
“It will happen.” close'
Advertising for trade unions on Facebook suggests the party has recognized this risk. In the video, Strathern says: “We are facing a historic moment here in Mid Bedfordshire, but it will be so close.”
He then sets out a number of reasons why Labor has the best chance of winning the seat, noting that the party came second to the Tories in the 2019 election and that two polls put Labor ahead of the Lib Dems in the race.
“Other parties have the right to campaign as they see fit, but it's important that we get the facts straight,” he says. “And that's why Labor is the party that can beat the Conservatives here.
“We have been the party that has come second here recently, giving us an excellent platform of local support, but most importantly, the only two independent polls that have been carried out have shown us to be level with the Conservatives and other parties, ranking third or fourth place.
“If there were other polls, I'm sure other parties would have shared them, but the only polls we've seen in this race show that we are the party that can win conservatives.”
A Survation poll in September put Labor and the Tories on 29 per cent of the vote each, with the Lib Dems in third place on 22 per cent. An earlier poll by Opinium put the Labor Party on 28 percent and Conservative candidate Festus Akinbusoye on 24 percent. Gareth McKee, an independent candidate, received 19 per cent and the Lib Dems' Emma Holland-Lindsay received 15 per cent.
Emma Holland-Lindsay with Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Mr Strathearn also points out bookmakers see Labor as “narrow favorites in this race”. Apparently addressing Lib Dem voters, he continues: “It will be close, though, and if we are going to win here, voters will need to vote tactically to make sure we support the party that is best placed to change.”
“We can win here in Mid Bedfordshire. But it will require support from people who will lend me their vote this time as the candidate who can actually vote it.”
The battle between Labor and the Lib Dems in Mid Bedfordshire is becoming increasingly bitter. In September, Labor Party leader Peter Kyle accused the Lib Dems of waging a “deeply personal” campaign against Mr Strathern.
The Lib Dems returned fire, saying Mr Kyle's comments showed Labor was itself trying to “desperately smear”.
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