Voters went to the polls yesterday (Thursday) in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome.
The Conservatives pulled off a by-election victory in Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, but lost a seat in Yorkshire to Labour and a seat in Somerset to the Lib Dems.
After polling suggested a comfortable win for Labour in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Conservatives defied the odds and candidate Steve Tuckwell retained Boris Johnson’s former seat for the Tories in a huge blow to Sir Keir Starmer.
Conservative Steve Tuckwell campaigned heavily on the expansion of the Ulez driving tax to all of Greater London which struck a chord with voters and saw him win with a majority of 495 against all expectations.
In his victory speech the new Tory MP Steve Tuckwell said:
“Sadiq Khan has lost Labour this election. It was damaging and costly Ulez policy that lost them this election.
“The pundits expected Labour to win big here but our community came together. This wasn’t the campaign Labour expected and Keir Starmer and his mayor Sadiq Khan need to sit up and listen.”
Conservative party Chairman Greg Hands was one of the first to congratulate the new Conservative MP saying:
“An amazing result in Uxbridge! Well done Steve Tuckwell on defying the odds. Labour were 25-1 ON to win in Uxbridge. It shows that when Labour run something (like London) they run it badly and Sir Keir Starmer flip flops on ULEZ, showing he can’t be trusted.”
However, despite the victory the Conservatives still lost almost all of the 7,210 majority won by Boris Johnson in 2019.
Elsewhere the Conservatives were also defeated by the Lib Dems in Somerset and Labour in Yorkshire.
In 2019 the Conservatives held the Somerset seat in Somerton and Frome by a comfortable 19,213 votes but have now lost it with a large 29 percent swing to the Liberal Democrats. Sarah Dyke, the Lib Dem candidate, now has a healthy majority of over 11,000.
In Yorkshire, Conservatives also lost their seat in Selby and Ainsty. Labour overturned the Tories’ 20,000 majority in the largest swing since months prior to Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide.
The full results for each by-election were as follows:
Uxbridge and South Ruislip, parliamentary by-election result:
CON: 45.2% (-7.5)
LAB: 43.6% (+5.9)
GRN: 2.9% (+0.6)
REC: 2.3% (+2.3)
Conservative HOLD
Somerton and Frome parliamentary by-election result:
LDEM: 54.6% (+28.4)
CON: 26.2% (-29.6)
GRN: 10.2% (+5.1)
REF: 3.4% (+3.4)
LAB: 2.6% (-10.3)
IND: 1.6% (+1.6)
UKIP: 0.7% (+0.7)
Lib Dem GAIN
Selby and Ainsty parliamentary by-election result:
LAB: 46.0% (+21.4)
CON: 34.3% (-25.9)
GRN: 5.1% (+1.9)
YRK: 4.2% (+0.8)
REF: 3.7% (+3.7)
LDEM: 3.3% (-5.3)
Labour GAIN
