Starmer's planning reforms boost Conservative hopes for Mid Bedfordshire by-election

Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer and Sarah Edwards, Labor candidate in Tamworth on Friday Photo: Jacob King

Planning-Reform Sir Keir Starmer The proposals have boosted Tory hopes for a by-election in Mid Bedfordshire.

Voters go to the polls on Thursday to elect a successor to Nadine Dorries, who won the last election with a majority of almost 25,000.

A Conservative Party source said Sir Keir's planning rhetoric was so unpopular that the seat could be saved from going to the opposition.

At the party conference earlier this week, the Labor leader vowed to «break through» » opposition to new developments and to restart building Britain.

Sir Keir said he would do it «fight the blockers» and restore the lost dream of homeownership by ordering the construction of 1.5 million homes. A Conservative Party source said: «Labour's housing policy, all that nonsense about Starmer bulldozing the planning system, has not been well received.»

«Mid Beads is within commuting distance of London and has always been there threat of construction of large new houses. development… That's the biggest problem here at the local level.»

The source said there were fears that a «Long Nadine» was hanging over the election campaign, but these have now dissipated.

Candidate from Conservatives Festus Akinbusoye, Commissioner of Police and Crime. He faces Labour's Alistair Strathern and the Liberal Democrats' Emma Holland-Lindsay.

Tamworth will also hold a by-election on Thursday after Chris Pincher resigned as Conservative MP.