The opposition Labour Party overturned huge Conservative majorities to win the parliamentary seats of Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth, boosting leader Keir Starmer’s hopes of becoming prime minister in a UK vote expected next year.
Alistair Strathern won the special election for Mid Bedfordshire — a mostly rural district north of London — with 13,872 votes. Conservative Festus Akinbusoye got 12,680 votes and Liberal Democrat Emma Holland-Lindsay 9,420.
The Tories were defending a majority of almost 25,000 in the seat, making it the biggest deficit Labour has overcome in a by-election since 1945. It will be viewed as a major step for Labour as it tries to oust the Conservatives from power for the first time in over a decade.
Earlier, Sarah Edwards was elected the Member of Parliament for Tamworth — a town northeast of Birmingham, the UK’s second-biggest city — winning 11,719 votes, ahead of Conservative Andrew Cooper on 10,403 votes.
“These are phenomenal results that show Labour is back in the service of working people and redrawing the political map,” Starmer said. “Winning in these Tory strongholds shows that people overwhelmingly want change and they’re ready to put their faith in our changed Labour Party to deliver it.”
Labour had played down its chances in Tamworth, given the Tory majority of almost 20,000 votes when the seat was last contested in 2019. Starmer’s party won a 23.9 point swing from the Tories here — just under the 23.7-point swing it recorded when winning Selby and Ainsty in a by-election in July.
Sunak’s team will likely try to lessen the significance of the results, insisting that mid-term elections are often difficult for governing parties. The Tories trail Labour by about 20 percentage points in national polls, and had hoped to hold onto the seat in order to halt Starmer’s momentum.
The Tamworth election was called after former MP Chris Pincher stood down following allegations last year that he had groped two men. Boris Johnson’s efforts to defend Pincher, who was then a government minister, triggered a backlash that was a major part of the former premier’s downfall.
