British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s governing Conservative Party has lost two strategically important parliamentary seats in a trio of special elections, but avoided a wipeout after holding onto former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s seat in suburban London.
Though the main opposition Labour Party and the smaller centrist Liberal Democrats overturned massive Conservative majorities to win a seat apiece, the Conservatives found some comfort in their narrow success in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London.
“No one expected us to win here,” Sunak told reporters on Friday. “Westminster has been acting like the next election is a done deal, the Labour Party has been acting like it’s a done deal. The people of Uxbridge just told all of them that it is not.”
Still, the results of Thursday’s elections, if replicated at a likely general election next year, would see Labour emerge as the biggest single party, possibly with a sizeable overall majority.
Despite holding onto Johnson’s former seat by just 495 votes, the three election results show the Conservatives losing ground across a broad range of voters: suburban Londoners, small-town dwellers in the north of England and rural residents in the southwest.
Sunak headed straight off to the scene of his party’s sole electoral success and noted that governments often find midterm elections difficult.
Original from www.aljazeera.com