Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives on Friday suffered two crushing UK parliamentary by-election defeats but averted a “3-0” drubbing by unexpectedly holding on to Boris Johnson’s old Uxbridge seat.

The grave problems facing the British prime minister were highlighted when the opposition Labour party secured its biggest-ever by-election win in the once-safe Tory seat of Selby and Ainsty in Yorkshire.

Earlier the centrist Liberal Democrats demolished a massive Tory majority to win the seat of Somerton and Frome, opening up a dangerous new front for Sunak in the Tory heartlands of England’s South West.

    • TheHalc@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      At least in Uxbridge, single issue voters seem to have won it for them

      People who are upset with Sadiq Kahn for the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London, despite the fact that their former MP Johnson actually kicked it off…

      • FatLegTed@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        He (Boris) is to blame for so many things. Fickle willfully ignorant voters can’t see past today’s headlines.

        • TheHalc@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          I actually don’t really think it’s a terrible idea, no matter where it came from. Air quality in London is way better than it used to be, but still not good enough.

          I know it’s mostly from the tube, but I always think of the black bogeys I’d get whenever I visited London as a child. My parents told me about how bad the smog was when they lived there in the 60s and 70s.

          • FatLegTed@feddit.uk
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            1 year ago

            Oops! I meant Boris!

            Will edit to reflect that.

            The air is cleaner, and there’s less traffic. Underground was terrible when I was a kidd.

    • Mane25@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Who tf is still voting for them? Who are these people?

      I’m suspicious at this point. No proof, but known-to-be corrupt and dishonest government rigging elections seems like an increasingly simpler Occam’s razor explanation for apparently remaining tory support.