Boris Johnson braces for a by-election battering as defiant PM insists he won’t quit

Boris Johnson was handed a double by-election pummelling today as the Tories were humiliated in two by-elections that will deepen the crisis surrounding his leadership of the Conservatives and the country. 

In seismic results in the early hours of this morning, the Conservatives lost two seats in West Yorkshire and Devon by large margins after months of sleaze and economic woe that have bedevilled Mr Johnson’s premiership.

The Conservatives lost the formerly ultra-safe, Brexit-backing seat of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats, with Richard Food winning by more than 6,000 votes in a seat where the party came third in 2019.

Helen Hurford, the Tory candidate, locked herself in a room previously reserved for media interviews ahead of the result at the constituency’s election count in a sports centre in Crediton, when the scale of her defeat became clear. 

It was a swing of 30 per cent to Sir Ed Davey’s party, with pollsters before the vote saying anything over 25 per cent would be disastrous for the Tories. It is the third comprehensive Lib Dem win in a by-election in a previously safe Tory seat in the past 18 months, after Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire.

Neil Parish – the Tory MP who had more than 60 per cent of the vote in 2019 – resigned after admitting he had watched pornography on his phone in the House of Commons. 

Some 270 miles to the north east, Mr Johnson’s party had moments earlier ceded Wakefield to Labour after holding it for just three years, with Simon Lightwood comfortably winning a vote called after the previous Tory MP, Imran Ahmad Khan, was jailed for child sex offenses.

Mr Lightwood overturned a majority of less than 3,500 to retake a seat that was solidly Labour between the 1930s and 2019. He took 13,166 votes to Tory Nadeem Ahmed’s 8,241 on a 52 per cent turnout. It gave him a majority of 4,925 on a swing of 12.7 per cent from the Tories to Labour.

Speaking after he was elected in Honiton, Mr Foord said: Tonight, the people of Tiverton and Honiton have spoken for Britain. They’ve sent a loud and clear message: It’s time for Boris Johnson to go. And go now.’

A bullish Boris Johnson last night insisted he will not quit whichever way the results go. As the results came in he was 4,000 miles away at a Commonwealth gathering in Rwanda. 

Speaking to reporters while travelling to Kigali, the Prime Minister insisted he was ‘very hopeful’ of a positive outcome from the two by-elections – but said it would be ‘crazy’ to quit over a bad mid-term result.

But the defeats in two very different parts of the country will have his party critics again circling, with questions over whether he is the best person to lead the party into the next election. 

No government has failed to defend two by-election seats on the same day since 1991, when John Major was in No10.

In seismic results in the early hours of this morning, the Conservatives lost two seats in West Yorkshire and Devon by large margins after months of sleaze and economic woe that have bedevilled Mr Johnson’s premiership. 

Mr Johnson will not be around to take flack from any political fallout – is on tour abroad for the next week in Africa and Europe with his wife Carrie.

Voters went to the polls in Wakefield and in Tiverton and Honiton today, with party insiders privately warning the Tories were set to lose both.

His party is expected to win in Tiverton and Honiton, which was held by the Tories with a 24,000 majority just three years ago. On what is forecast to be a dark night for the PM, the party is also expected to lose Wakefield to Labour.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey tweeted in the early hours that he was ‘going to need a bigger hammer’, a referenced to a stunt at the party’s Chesham and Amersham victory last year that saw him demolish a ‘blue wall’ with a tiny orange tool.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey tweeted in the early hours that he was ‘going to need a bigger hammer’, a referenced to a stunt at the party’s Chesham and Amersham victory last year that saw him demolish a ‘blue wall’ with a tiny orange tool. 

The scale of the Lib Dem win in Devon will shock the Tories and shines a light on the level of popular discontent in the PM after months of scandals and economic reversals. It could also reignite attempts by Tory MPs to oust him before then next general election.

Mr Johnson will not be around to take flack from any political fallout – is on tour abroad for the next week in Africa and Europe with his wife Carrie. 

But there are fears the expected grim results at home could spark a renewed Conservative revolt against his leadership, weeks after he was forced to face a vote of confidence from his own MPs.

Senior Conservatives figures were last night blaming Jeremy Hunt and other Tory plotters for wrecking the campaigns by trying to unseat Mr Johnson with the vote of no confidence, which he won 211 to 148.

A new poll last night gave Labour an 11-point lead in the polls, up from six points a week previously. But the survey by Savanta ComRes was carried out before this week’s crippling rail strikes brought Britain to a halt. 

Mr Johnson faces the fallout from those strikes, as well as general unrest of the rising cost of living – inflation hit 9.1 per cent this week. 

He is also embroiled in a fight with human rights campaigners over his attempts to send migrants arriving in the UK to Rwanda.

Keir Starmer, reacting to the Wakefield win, said: ‘Wakefield has shown the country has lost confidence in the Tories. 

‘This result is a clear judgement on a Conservative Party that has run out of energy and ideas. Britain deserves better.

‘Wakefield has voted Labour because we have the solutions for the challenges facing the British people. 

‘The Labour Party is back on the side of working people, winning seats where we lost before, and ready for government.’

Turnout in Wakefield was 39 per cent, while in the Devon seat it was 52 per cent. 

Both by-elections today were triggered by misconduct by the former Tory MPs.

The polls were  seen as a key test for Mr Johnson’s leadership. Wakefield, where the Conservatives were defending a majority of less than 3,500, has been seen as a lost cause for weeks.

A new poll last night gave Labour an 11-point lead in the polls. But the survey by Savanta ComRes was carried out before this week’s crippling rail strikes brought Britain to a halt.

Senior Conservatives figures were last night blaming Jeremy Hunt and other Tory plotters for wrecking the campaigns by trying to unseat Mr Johnson with a vote of no confidence.

But prior to the vote in Tiverton and Honiton the Tories were said to be ‘neck and neck’ with the Lib-Dems, a prediction that failed to become fact.

A senior Tory source said the actions of the Tory rebels had exacerbated what was already a difficult contest in Devon.

‘Tiverton and Honiton was always going to be a tough battle because we are mid-term and there is residual anger over Partygate where the media have been having a field day. People see it as a way to punish us without a change of Government,’ the source said.

‘But the overlay of division has been massively unhelpful. It was raised on the doorstep time and again – people were saying if even his own MPs won’t vote for him, why should we?

‘The really damaging thing is that it came just as the postal ballots were being sent out, where we would normally hope for a decent showing.

‘If we have lost the postals then we have lost. It’s all incredibly unhelpful and totally self-inflicted.’ 

A poll by Survation for the 38 Degrees website two weeks ago – around the time of the vote of no confidence against Mr Johnson – put Labour on 56 per cent in the West Yorkshire seat, with the Tories on 33 per cent

Boris Johnson has only made one visit to Devon to assist candidate Helen Hurford, a local councillor and beautician. They are pictured together on June 10

Wakefield was one of the so-called Red Wall seats won by the Tories in the 2019 general election after being a Labour stronghold since the 1930s, but Labour is now hoping to take it back with Simon Lightwood

Tory candidate Nadeem Ahmed raised eyebrows by arguing last week that voters should still trust the party after Mr Khan’s sexual assault conviction, just as they still trust GPs despite the crimes of mass murderer Harold Shipman.

In Wakefield, a former industrial area in West Yorkshire, ex-Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan stood down after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy and jailed for 18 months.

Wakefield was one of the so-called Red Wall seats won by the Tories in the 2019 general election after being a Labour stronghold since the 1930s, but Labour has battled to take it back.

Tory candidate Nadeem Ahmed raised eyebrows by arguing last week that voters should still trust the party after Mr Khan’s sexual assault conviction, just as they still trust GPs despite the crimes of mass murderer Harold Shipman. 

In Devon’s Tiverton and Honiton, Neil Parish, the Tory MP since 2010, resigned after admitting he had watched pornography on his phone in the House of Commons.

The Prime Minister urged voters to ‘stick up for British food and farming’ by supporting Tory Helen Hurford, a former head teacher turned beautician.

In a video shared on social media on Wednesday, Mr Johnson appeared alongside the candidate on a farm, saying the party was working to protect ‘our fantastic food and farming industry and ‘amazing agricultural sector’.