The Conservative Party of the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has lost two of the three seats at stake in the partial elections held this Thursday in England, the EFE Agency has reported.
According to the final count released this Friday, the “Tories” have prevailed in the Uxbridge and Ruislip South constituency, in the suburban area of London, with 45.2% of the vote for their candidate Steve Tuckwell. That seat had been held by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson until June.
Meanwhile, in the constituency of Selby and Ainsty, in York County (north), the main opposition party, Labor, has obtained 46% of the vote for candidate Keir Maher, who has only received about 500 more votes than his conservative rival.
The third force at the national level, the Liberal Democrat Party, has achieved a resounding victory in the Somerton and Frome constituency (south-west), where its candidate Sarah Dyke has obtained 54.6% of the vote, well ahead of the 26.2 % of conservative Faye Purbrik. Dyke has stated that “this has been an impressive and historic victory for the Liberal Democrats”.
With these results, Sunak has avoided becoming the first UK head of government in 55 years to lose three by-elections in the same appointment. In these elections, the citizens of a constituency choose the candidate who must occupy a seat that has become vacant in the middle of the legislature.
Test for Sunak
On this occasion, they have served to measure the popularity of Sunak and the “Tories”, who started these partial elections with three large majorities and are still behind Labor in the polls ahead of the general elections, according to observers quoted by EFE.
The British Conservatives, in power since 2010, face possible defeat in the next general elections, although Sunak hopes to redirect the formation after several years of chaotic government and mired in scandal.
Precisely, one of the seats that was at stake this week, that corresponding to Uxbridge, became vacant after the resignation in June of Boris Johnson, after a parliamentary commission recommended his suspension for 90 days, for having lied to Parliament in relation to the illegal parties held in Downing Street during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Selby’s seat was up for grabs as a Johnson ally, Nigel Adams, resigned, while David Warburton also left Somerton’s seat in June, where he had sat as an independent after being expelled from the Conservative Party over sexual harassment allegations.
Faced with the scandals of the “Tories”, Labor leads the intention to vote at the national level for the general elections scheduled before the end of 2024, according to the polls.
