UK by-election won by Labour, Tory PM Sunak faces further setbacks

As the nation awaited the results of local elections that would likely increase pressure on the party’s beleaguered head, Rishi Sunak, the ruling Conservatives in Britain lost a parliamentary seat to the main opposition Labour party on Friday.

In the most recent by-election, Labour defeated the Conservatives in the northwest English constituency of Blackpool South, suggesting that a general election is imminent.

Voters in a variety of council, mayoral, and other local elections around England cast ballots on Thursday, prompting the vote that resulted from a lobbying scandal that led to the resignation of the area’s Conservative MP.

With a 26.3 percent swing, Chris Webb of Labour won, marking the third-largest margin of victory for Labour over the Conservatives in a by-election since World War II.

“This seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today,” said Labour leader Keir Starmer, tipped to be Britain’s next prime minister.

The polls serve as the final significant ballot box test prior to Sunak’s national election, which is anticipated to take place in the latter part of the year.

His decision The Conservatives, who have ruled the country since 2010, are expected to suffer significant setbacks despite having won hundreds of seats in the most recent local elections in 2021.

Labour was gaining council seats, according to preliminary returns, but all eyes were on the crucial regional and London mayoral races, the outcomes of which won’t be known until later this Friday and Saturday.

The capital’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan is expected to win a record third term easily, but mayoral contests in the West Midlands and Tees Valley, in northeast England, are predicted to be tight.

A victory for the Labour opposition in either of the regions, home to bellwether constituencies, would be hailed as further evidence voters are ready to return the party to power nationally.

– Right-wing upstarts –

Speculation is rife in the UK parliament at Westminster that a bad showing may lead some restive Tory lawmakers to try to replace Sunak, who has been in charge since October 2022.

Conservative MPs ousted Sunak’s predecessors, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, and the party has had five prime ministers since the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union.

Wins for the incumbent Tory mayors in the West Midlands and Tees Valley, Andy Street and Ben Houchen, would boost their hopes that the beleaguered leader can still revive their fortunes.

But with the Tories under fire nationally, on issues from water pollution to transport and inflation, Street and Houchen have distanced themselves from the party during the campaign.

Pollsters forecast that the Conservatives could lose about half of the nearly 1,000 council seats they are defending in cities, towns and districts across England.

“We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years,” polling expert John Curtice told BBC radio.

The defeat in Blackpool South was its 11th by-election loss since Johnson won a landslide victory at the last general election in 2019.

That is the most by any government in a single parliament since the late 1960s. Sunak has been in charge for seven of them.

Worryingly for him, the Conservatives only scraped into second place in Blackpool South ahead of the fringe Reform UK party, which threatens to squeeze the right-wing vote at the general election.

The party linked to arch-Eurosceptic Nigel Farage won 17 percent of the vote, its best-ever performance in a by-election.