Sir Keir Starmer says his party is 'redrawing the political map'; Credit: Jeremy Selwyn html?direct=true&id=09654deb-e998-471c-a0c8-03f630d86ef3&truncated=false&expandable=false' class='tmg-particle results-bar wrp-09654deb-e998-471c-a0c8-03f630d86ef3' name='Tamworth and Mid Bedford County Labor Party Comparison Tory' data-truncated='false' data-business-type='editorial' loading='eager' scroll='no'frameborder='0' style='width: 100%; min-width: 100%; border: none; position: static; display: block; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;'>
On Friday morning, Labor handed the Tories their heaviest ever by-election loss in what the party said was a «political earthquake».
Sir Keir Starmer said his party was «redrawing the political map» after overthrowing huge Conservative majorities in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire.
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, has been warned the Conservatives face being ousted after dismal results in the former seats of Nadine Dorries and Chris Pincher.
This means the Conservatives have lost seven constituencies in the last three years, a string of losses not seen since Sir John Major was in power.
Within half an hour, Labor had won Tamworth, the 55th safest Conservative seat in the country, and overturned its largest majority since 1945 in Middleton. Bedfordshire
The Labor leader said: “Victory in these Tory strongholds shows that people overwhelmingly want change and are willing to trust our changed Labor Party to deliver it.”
In Mid Bedfordshire, his party had the best result of any official opposition party against the sitting government, unseating a huge 42 per cent Conservative majority.
The by-election was called after Ms Dorries, an MP since 2005, decided to resign after she was denied a peerage on Boris Johnson's exit list.
It has been in Tory hands since 1931 and has traditionally been considered one of the safest blue seats in the country, with the party winning it by 24,664 votes in 2019.
Alistair Strathern, the Labor candidate whose The campaign suffered from criticism of his past environmental activism, achieved a swing of 20.5% and he passed with a majority of 1,192.
Peter Kyle, the shadow science minister who led the campaign in Mid Bedfordshire, said: «Don't hide This is where a political earthquake unfolded. This is the biggest pre-election shock in history.»
Alistair Strathearn achieves 20.5 per cent swing in Mid Bedfordshire Credit : Joe Giddens/PA
The news of the results came half an hour after before Labor learned it had also won another huge victory in the West Midlands town of Tamworth.
There, a by-election was called after Conservative MP Chris Pincher resigned in disgrace after being caught drunkenly groping two men at the Carlton Club in London.
< p>It was Johnson who dealt with the scandal, which ultimately led to the scandal. his fall as Prime Minister, ushering in one of the most turbulent periods in the party's history.
The Conservatives' huge majority of 19,634 seats was wiped out, and Sarah Edwards, the Labor candidate, won it by 1,316 votes .
Professor Sir John Curtice, a leading pollster, said the double results showed the Tories were «staring defeat in the face» at the expected general election next year.
He pointed to historical parallels with the last by-election. in Tamworth, formerly South East Staffordshire, this happened in 1996.
Sarah Edwards, right, winner Candidate from the Labor Party in Tamworth Photo: Jacob King/PA
In that case, Sir Tony Blair won the seat by 22 per cent and then scored a huge victory in the general election a year later.
Sir John also highlighted the danger of Mr Sunak being «caught in the claws» between Labor and Reform Britain, losing Brexit voters to both.
Reform Britain, the successor to Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, received more votes than the new Labor majority in both Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth. .
On the eve of the results, former chancellor George Osborne warned that if Sunak lost both by-elections, “the Tory party would face Armageddon.”
Senior Tory MPs said the results showed Mr Sunak needed to go further and faster on tax cuts and tackling illegal migration to win back voters.< /p>
Sir John Redwood, Conservative MP for Wokingham, said: “Two by-elections left thousands of Tory voters at home in 2019. Labour's vote was the same as in 2019.
“Many people want the government to stop the boats, improve the quality and efficiency of services and cut taxes to bring about some growth.
“Low turnout in by-elections can lead to big swings. They show that people want something better than what all the main parties are offering.» Dame Andrea Jenkins, MP for Morley and Outwood, added: «Voter apathy is again evident in both by-elections.
“We need to make far-reaching, serious changes now to instill confidence in Tory voters.”
Andrew Bowie, the nuclear energy minister, insisted the prime minister could still win next year and said that despite the defeats, «the Labor Party does not have mass support.»
He said Sky News that voters are «valid». actually agree with our priorities, but withhold judgment when it comes to who they are going to vote for in the next general election.»
«Clearly we need to pay attention and listen to what voters are telling us,” he added.
“But we are absolutely confident that we are on the right course, we are delivering value to the British people and people will start to feel that very soon.”
Greg Hands, chairman of the Conservative party, said the “disappointing” results were because “a significant number of people who voted Conservative last time stayed home this time.”
“We obviously need to reflect on this and think about the implications that this has,” he told Times Radio.
“There were a lot of, if you like, background circumstances in these two by-elections that , I think, also made our work more difficult.”
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