The Conservative Party in the UK (also known as the Tories) lost two out of three parliamentary by-elections this week.
The results will come as a blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose government is facing a number of serious challenges and is significantly trailing the main opposition, Labour, in opinion polls.
In Somerton and Frome in the west of England the Liberal Democrats won over the Tories. The by-election had become necessary after the constituency’s MP, David Warburton, resigned after allegations of sexual harassment and illegal drug use surfaced.
On Thursday the Lib Dems saw their vote share increase to over 50%, with the Tories dropping down to 27.5%, a drop of nearly thirty percentage points.
The other seat which the Tories lost was Selby and Ainsty in Yorkshire, in the north of England.
The incumbent there, Nigel Adams, resigned when Prime Minister Boris Johnson stood down. He said he was also looking to enter the private sector.
Here Labour emerged victorious, with its candidate, Keir Mather, winning 46% of the vote, an increase of over 20 percentage points compared to the general election. The Tory candidate, Claire Holmes, won just over a third of the vote.
The Tories successfully defended the seat of former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. Johnson had resigned from the seat of Oxbridge and Ruislip, in west London, over the ‘Partygate’ scandal.
Here its candidate, Steve Tuckwell, won 45% of the vote, a slight decrease on the 2019 election.
Labour did not finish far behind, with 43% of the vote.
The next British general election must be held by January 2025. Polls have for some time now shown that Labour has a big lead over the Tories, with the Tories trailing by as much as 20 percentage points. On current trends it is likely that the Tories will be out of government for the first time since 2010.
[Image: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=126570328]