The Conservatives’ problems got from bad to worse when they lost two seats in a recent by-election.
The Liberal Democrats won the once ultra-safe Tiverton and Honiton seat in Devon when they won by a majority of over 6,000 votes. Meanwhile, Labour won back Wakefield in West Yorkshire, a former safe seat captured by the Conservatives in 2019 on the back of brexit, by a majority of over 3,500 votes. On top of the defeats, Oliver Dowden resigned as Conservative party chairman.
Much as many people like to see the back of this government, we need to recognise that: Tiverton and Honiton will be won back by the Conservatives at the next general election- the Lib Dems will be targeting other winnable seats with the small resources that they have.
Labour just won in Wakefield, but their campaign was hit by the decision to parachute in a candidate at the last minute, which angered local party members. When they did the same thing in Hartlepool last year, they lost. They also won fewer votes in victory than they did when they lost in 2019. Keir Starmer, despite being Labour party leader for the last two years, still struggles to win over voters and many still don’t know what he stands for. This by-election saw a widespread rejection of the democratic process as most voters, fed up of infantile behaviour of our politicians, decide to stay away from the polling stations.
In spite of all this, the Conservatives still have a working majority and still have a lot of public support, and whether or not prime minister Boris Johnson will be replaced, they would still be favourites to win the next general election.