Boris Johnson has suffered a triple blow after the Conservatives were defeated in two by-elections, prompting Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden to resign.
The Conservatives saw their 24,000-vote majority vanish as the Liberal Democrats won the Devon seats of Tiverton and Honiton, while Labour won Wakefield in West Yorkshire.
The Conservatives lost a majority of 24,000 votes, or 40.6 percent, in the Devon seat of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats, a record reverse for the party.
Wakefield, West Yorkshire’s’red wall’ constituency snatched by the Conservatives in 2019, was won by Labour.
Following the results of the by-elections, Mr Dowden resigned, writing to the Prime Minister, “We cannot carry on with business as usual.
Mr Johnson thanked him for his service, but added that while he understood Mr Dowden’s “disappointment,” the government had a “historic mandate” from the general election, and he wanted to continue working “to unite and level up” the country.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak expressed “sadness” over Mr Dowden’s resignation, adding, “We all take responsibility for the results, and I’m determined to continue working to address the cost of living.”
Reactions to Boris Johnson’s humiliating defeats in politics
It was the PM’s second electoral defeat this year, following the Conservatives’ loss of nearly 500 council seats at the start of last month.
“I think people are absolutely tired of the lies and deceit we’ve seen from the prime minister and they’re demanding change,” said Simon Lightwood, who won the Wakefield by-election for Labour.
Richard Foord, the Lib Dem candidate for Tiverton and Honiton, used his acceptance speech to call for Mr Johnson “to go, and go now,” claiming his victory had “sent a shockwave through British politics.”
The prime minister has come under fire for the partygate scandal, as well as the cost of living crisis, which has strained British household budgets.
The pressure increased when 148 Conservative MPs voted against him in a no-confidence vote.
Mr Dowden upped the ante in his damning letter, saying, “Someone must take responsibility.”
Sir Roger Gale, a Tory backbencher and outspoken critic of the Prime Minister, called Mr Dowden “a decent and honourable man who has clearly decided that he can no longer defend the indefensible.”
Angela Richardson, a Conservative colleague who resigned as a junior aide over partygate, also tweeted that the former party chairman was “most certainly not responsible for these results,” while fellow MP Simon Hoare said he was “proud to call Oliver a friend – never more so than today.”
Mr Johnson, who is in Rwanda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, said ahead of the vote that resigning as prime minister if he lost the two seats would be “crazy.”
According to a source close to the PM, he received a brief phone call from Mr Dowden after he made his decision public, which caught him off guard because the pair had been together on Wednesday to prepare for PMQs.
A Downing Street source admitted that the resignation was unhelpful and that they were unsure whether more resignations would follow.
However, because the vote of no confidence was only a few weeks ago, the prime minister’s position was settled.
Mr Johnson said after the results that he did not want to “underestimate the significance” of the message from voters, but that it was normal for governments to be “punished at the polls” in the middle of their term.
“I think as a government, I’ve got to listen to what people are saying, particularly the difficulties people are facing over the cost of living, which I think is the number one issue for most people,” the PM added.
We have to recognise that there is more we need to do, and we certainly will, we will keep going addressing people’s concerns until we get through this patch.
However, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Wakefield result showed the public “voting no confidence” in the government and that the PM and his cabinet should resign.
“The Tory Party is absolutely imploding,” he said while visiting the constituency to celebrate his party’s victory. They are aware that they are out of ideas and out of touch.
“If they had any sense, they would clear the way for the next Labour government.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told that the South West by-election was a “huge victory” for his party but also revealed a “big issue for our country.”
“I believe Tiverton and Honiton have spoken for the British people, and I believe they have said loud and clear, Boris Johnson must go,” he added.
“They see him as a lying lawbreaker and someone who does not have a plan for our country.”
On the sixth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, two by-elections were held in leave-voting constituencies.
They were triggered by the resignations of Conservative MPs: Neil Parish in Tiverton and Honiton resigned after admitting to watching pornography on his mobile phone in the Commons chamber; and Imran Ahmad Khan in Wakefield resigned after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
Mr Parish told that the Conservatives’ defeat in his former seat was due to “a combination of our vote dropping dramatically, people switching, people staying at home, and a very unpopular prime minister who people tactically voted against.”
“[Mr Johnson] has many good qualities,” he added. The problem is that he can’t just continue to exist in a parallel universe; there has to be reality.”
Wakefield’s last Labour MP, Mary Creagh, who was defeated by the Conservatives in 2019, said it was “clear the public has fallen out of love with Boris Johnson.”
“All the rhetoric they were promised about ‘levelling up’ and ‘the northern powerhouse’ has been forgotten,” she told “and the Tory Party now looks like a project to keep one man in power.”
“It has not been a good evening by any stretch of the imagination,” Mr Scully said of the results.
However, he stated that Mr Johnson’s “brave approach” would generate “the big ideas” to address the country’s challenges, including the cost of living crisis.
