Despite record-breaking anti-Tory swings in Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome, as well as a protracted Labour campaign, the Conservatives have held on to Boris’s seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Thanks, in part, to some credible expectation management from CCHQ, it means an otherwise dire night for the Conservatives doesn’t look so bad, after punters, pundits and pollsters alike predicted the Conservatives would lose all three seats. It could be worse…
After a recount, the Conservatives won in Uxbridge by 495 votes, with a 6.9% swing to Labour – in his victory speech the new MP, Steve Tuckwell, thanked one person in particular:
“Sadiq Khan has lost Labour this election and we know it was his damaging and costly ULEZ policy that lost them this election.”
Over to you, Susan…
Elsewhere, results were catastrophic for the Conservatives. In Somerton, LibDem Sarah Dyke won by 11,008 votes in a seat which previously had a 19,000 Tory majority – it was a swing of 29%. Likewise, in Selby Keir Mather will take his seat as the Baby of the House, as Labour won their biggest ever by-election victory, overturning a 20,000 majority to themselves win by 4,161 – on a swing of 23.7%. Pollster John Curtice told the Today programme that Selby and Somerton were more indicative of a General Election. He added that the Tories are “in deep electoral trouble”.
The results in full were:
The Liberal Democrat candidate for the Somerton & Frome by-election had an interesting brush with the Guardian’s Politics Weekly UK podcast today. The “passionate” Sarah Dyke has a variety of painfully long pauses, in the 90 second clip, and does not seem to understand the economic landscape of the seat she will be contesting. Not the first Liberal Democrat to struggle with basic economics…
The clip appears to record exchanges between Dyke’s campaign manager, the Guardian producer, and the interviewer reassuring Dyke that it is completely fine. The discussion then turns to the topic of coffee, as a knowledge of the economic deprivation of an area you are attempting to represent is innately linked to getting your shot of caffeine!
The final nail in the coffin was the fact that she actually admitted to not knowing anything about Somerton. What more could you expect from a local council worker…
