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:
Last night Steve Tuckwell was selected as the Tory candidate for the Uxbridge and South Ruislip, a local lifelong resident of Hillingdon. He’s fighting on a platform of opposing Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ expansion:
“Uxbridge cannot afford a Labour MP who backs Khan’s plan to stop residents living their lives the way they choose and make us pick up the tab for his mistakes, under his ULEZ expansion. I’m a local here, and if elected, I will work hard to deliver the rebuilding of Hillingdon Hospital. If Labour win in Uxbridge however – it will send Sadiq Khan a clear message that he can expand his ULEZ and close our police station. A vote for the Conservative Party will tell him he can’t get away with it.”
He’s got a tough battle…
