Labour has dealt a double by-election blow to Rishi Sunak by overturning huge Tory majorities in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire.
Sir Keir Starmer claimed Labour was “redrawing the political map” by taking seats which had been comfortably Conservative ahead of the general election expected next year.
In Tamworth, Labour’s Sarah Edwards defeated Tory Andrew Cooper by a majority of 1,316.
These are phenomenal results that show Labour is back in the service of working people and redrawing the political map
The Conservatives were defending a 19,600 majority, but a 23.9 percentage point swing to Labour saw that eradicated.
The result, announced shortly at 2.45am, was the second-highest ever by-election swing to Labour.
Just half-an-hour later, there was even better news for Sir Keir as Mid Bedfordshire saw the largest majority overturned by Labour at a by-election since 1945.
The Tories had held Mid Bedfordshire since 1931, with a 24,664 Conservative majority in 2019.
But Alistair Strathern took the seat with a majority of 1,192 over his Tory rival Festus Akinbusoye, with a swing of 20.5 percentage points to Labour.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “These are phenomenal results that show Labour is back in the service of working people and redrawing the political map.
“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.
“Voters across Mid Bedfordshire, Tamworth and Britain want a Labour government determined to deliver for working people, with a proper plan to rebuild our country.
“To those who have given us their trust, and those considering doing so, Labour will spend every day acting in your interests and focused on your priorities. Labour will give Britain its future back.”
Both contests were triggered by the high-profile departures of their previous MPs.
Labour GAIN Mid Bedfordshire pic.twitter.com/EkXtXu7xVj
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) October 20, 2023
Former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries quit – eventually – as Mid Bedfordshire’s MP in anger at being denied a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.
In Tamworth, Chris Pincher resigned after being found to have drunkenly groped two men in an “egregious case of sexual misconduct” at London’s exclusive Carlton Club last year – an incident which helped trigger Mr Johnson’s exit from No 10 because of his handling of the situation.
The Conservatives sought to portray the by-elections as mid-term blips, exacerbated by the difficulties surrounding the previous MPs.
But elections expert Professor Sir John Curtice warned the Tories risked seeing votes drift to Labour on the left and Reform UK on the right.
Reform secured 1,487 votes in Mid Bedfordshire and 1,373 in Tamworth, in both instances more than Labour’s majority over the Conservatives.
Prof Curtice told the BBC: “No government has hitherto lost to the principal opposition party in a by-election a seat as safe as Tamworth.”
He added that the Tories “may get caught in a pincer movement between some of their former Leave voters wandering off to Labour but others going off to Reform UK”.
