Labour Party’s Keir Mather has won taken the Selby seat from the Conservative Party in the just ended by-elections. Mather, 25, has been chosen as the next Member of Parliament for Selby.
He outpolled his opponents by gaining a massive 23.7% points, winning with 4,161 votes. Mather worked as a research analyst for the Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting.
The seat was previously held by Nigel Adams, a Johnson loyalist who stepped down from his position as a Tory MP in June. Nigel however, has been blamed by the conservatives for the loss of the seat.
Keir Mather will now become the youngest Member of Parliament in the House of Commons. Mather stated in his acceptance speech that, we have changed the parameters for where Labour can win in an election. He stressed that, “thousands of vote were in Labour’s box for the first time.”
By defeating the Conservatives by 20,000 votes in Selby and Ainsty, the Labour party accomplished it’s largest-ever by-election success. The Liberal Democrats likewise defeated the Conservatives in their traditionally secured seat of Somerton and Frome.
In Selby, Labour won by more than the 12-point swing required nationally for the party to secure a majority at the next general election.
However, the Conservatives managed to hold on to the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat, which was formerly held by Boris Johnson, by a mere 495 votes, saving the party from certain defeat.
In an election that was brought on by David Warburton’s departure, due to a controversy, the Liberal Democrats easily won in Somerton and Frome. Sarah Dyke, the cabinet member for the environment on South Somerset district council, defeated the Conservatives by a margin of 11,008 votes.
Given the lengthy history of sitting administrations, that have been penalized in by-elections, including the narrow victory in Uxbridge, Greg Hands, the chair of the Conservative Party, said that, the results did not necessarily portend doom for his party.
“We’re obviously going to listen to people, we’re going to look at some of the reasons why. But equally by-elections are not always a good predictor of general elections.”
Labour Party’s inability to capture the Uxbridge seat, caught short the joy of the party’s success in the by-elction. Some party officials pointed accusing fingers on the London Mayor Sadiq Khan, decision to broaden the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) anti-pollution program to peripheral districts of the municipality, including Uxbridge, the focal point of the crucial Tory campaign in the region.
The deputy leader of Labour, Angela Rayner, suggested that, Khan should reconsider the approach. “I think one of the things we have to reflect on today is not only the mood against the Conservatives, but also the decision in Uxbridge,” she remarked. “The Uxbridge result shows that when you don’t listen to the voters, you don’t win elections.”
Moreover, in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, the Conservatives lost 6.7 percentage points to Labour. To win the seat, Labour required a 7.6 point increase.
The victory of the Liberal Democrats in Somerton and Frome, according to the party leader Ed Davey, proved that the party was “firmly back in the West Country.”
Boris Johnson’s shocking departure from parliament, called for the need to conduct a by-election to elect his successor. Johnson resigned as MP, after his disagreement with the Covid Inquiry’s recommendations to hand him a lengthy suspension for his participation in the Partygate saga.
Furthermore, voter turnout in Uxbridge and South Ruislip was the highest of the three byelections, with 46.11% of the electorate voting. Somerton had 44.12% while Selby had 44.77%.
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