Advertisement
Advertisement
Britain
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party has lost its first by-election since he took office. Photo: EPA-EFE

Blow to PM Sunak’s party as UK opposition wins special election and another minister stands down

  • Result is bad news for Conservatives hammered by scandal-plagued former PM Boris Johnson, followed by turmoil under short-term successor Liz Truss
  • Former finance minister Sajid Javid said he won’t be standing at the next election, and will quit at the nationwide poll due before January 2025 at the latest
Britain

Britain’s opposition Labour Party has won a special election for a northwest England seat in Parliament, the first test of voter sentiment since Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took office in October.

Labour held onto the City of Chester constituency in the northwest of England with an increased vote share of 61 per cent, according to results announced Friday. Labour won 50 per cent of the votes in Chester at the last national election in 2019.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the result showed people are “fed up” with the Conservative government.

Thursday’s by-election was called after Labour lawmaker Christian Matheson stepped down over allegations that he made inappropriate sexual advances to a member of his staff.

The result is bad news for the Conservatives, whose popularity has been hammered by the scandal-plagued three-year-term of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which ended in September, and weeks of turmoil under his short-term successor, Liz Truss. Truss quit in October after her plan for unfunded tax cuts spooked financial markets and rocked the economy.

Sunak replaced her and announced a package of tax increases and spending cuts aimed at restoring confidence in the nation’s finances. But the economic picture remains gloomy: Inflation hit 11.1 per cent in October, many people are struggling to pay soaring energy bills and millions of workers, including railway staff, ambulance drivers and nurses, are staging strikes to demand major pay increases.

UK must ‘evolve’ China foreign policy in face of ‘challenge’, says PM Sunak

Newly elected Chester lawmaker Samantha Dixon said that “people in Chester and across our country are really worried.”

“Worried about losing their homes because they can’t afford the mortgage repayments or the rent, worried about whether they can put the heating on, worried about whether they can put food on the table for their families,” she said. “This is the cost of 12 years of Conservative government.”

Still, a national election does not have to be held until 2024, and pollsters warned that midterm special elections often don’t predict nationwide results.

Conservative peer and polling analyst Robert Hayward said the Tories were likely relieved they had not done worse.

“There are some indications that there are opportunities there for the Tory party,” he told said. “But Rishi has to convince the public at large that he can manage out of this crisis, whichever crisis one’s looking at – and there’s a lot of them.”

Former health minister for the Tories, Sajid Javid, announces he will leave before the next election. Photo: Reuters

In more bad news for Rishi Sunak, former finance minister Sajid Javid on Friday said he would not be standing at the next election, as the Conservative Party faces a slump in support after 12 years in power.

Sajid Javid, 52, is the highest-profile Tory MP yet to announce that he will quit at the next nationwide poll, which is due before January 2025 at the latest.

The Conservatives, in office since 2010, are on course for defeat by the main opposition Labour Party, according to opinion polls, and several younger Tory MPs have already said they will not be standing again.

Javid – a cabinet minister under David Cameron, Theresa May and Johnson – said he had thought long and hard about the decision.

He wrote in a letter to the head of his Bromsgrove constituency in central England that being an MP and in government had been “the privilege of my life”.

“I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to serve,” the millionaire former investment banker added.

Javid, the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver, was Britain’s first Muslim home secretary and chancellor of the exchequer. He also served as health secretary and campaigned earlier this year to take over from Johnson.

He quit the Treasury in February 2020 after refusing an order from 10 Downing Street to fire all his special advisers. He was replaced by Rishi Sunak, who is now prime minister.

Sunak said he was “sad” to see his “good friend” and fellow Star Wars fan Javid go. “May the Force be with you, Saj,” he added.

Post