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London (AFP) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a devastating by-election defeat on Friday in a constituency never before lost by his Conservative Party, a result that raises serious questions for his leadership.
His party won the seat in North Shropshire, Central England by a large majority in 2019, but that was wiped out by the Liberal Democrats in Thursday’s vote, adding to the mutinous sentiment among Conservative MPs.
Johnson, 57, was already stumbling after around 100 of his MPs rebelled in parliament Tuesday against the government’s introduction of vaccine passports for major events.
The UK leader’s authority has also been repeatedly overshadowed in recent weeks by corruption allegations and reports that he and his staff broke coronavirus restrictions last Christmas.
Weeks of bad news turned a normally routine win at the safe mansion – won by 23,000 votes just two years ago – into a staggering nearly 6,000 vote defeat, while rising virus cases have heightened the feeling of crisis.
The government reported nearly 89,000 new infections on Thursday, the second record in a row.
Victorious candidate Helen Morgan said voters signaled Johnson “loud and clear” that “the party’s over”.
“Your government, which is running on lies and gossip, will be held accountable. It can and will be defeated, â€she vowed.
‘Hit in the face’
If defeated, more MPs are likely to file letters of no confidence in their leader, which could spark an internal party vote to remove him.
In the same process, his predecessor Theresa May was dismissed in mid-2019 after MPs, including Johnson, voted against her Brexit deal in parliament.
The Liberal Democrats appeared to be supported by supporters of the largest national opposition party, Labor, who gave them their votes.
“I’m going to vote for the Liberal Democrats because I’m so offended by Johnson’s performance,” Martin Hill, 68, who normally votes for Labor, told AFP earlier this week.
“It’s going to be a tactical vote – I want to slap Johnson.”
Others in the small town of Whitchurch, however, were willing to overlook the violations of the former London mayor.
“I don’t think it’s enough for us to say, ‘Right, we want a new leader now,’ because I think Boris did an excellent job,” said 67-year-old Sue Parkinson, who voted for the Conservative last two decades.
Dark prospects
The atmosphere before the vote was a far cry from that in May, when the Conservatives in Hartlepool, northeast England, won an unprecedented by-election victory due to a successful vaccine launch.
But the virus is once again dominating British life and the arrival of the Omicron variant has once again deepened the pre-Christmas gloom as the Prime Minister’s authority is viewed as weakened.
The UK is also suffering from soaring inflation due to heavy borrowing during lockdown, high energy prices and supply chain bottlenecks. Tax increases are also due from April next year.
Johnson – who received overwhelming voter support in 2019 with his promise to get Brexit done – has been gripped by controversy since early last month.
It began with his unsuccessful attempt to change Parliament’s disciplinary rules to save North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson from a suspension after being discovered to have breached lobbying rules.
Paterson, who had held the seat since 1997, then resigned and forced Thursday’s by-election.
However, that crisis was soon eclipsed by reports that Johnson and his staff broke Covid rules last year by throwing multiple parties around Christmas – just as the public was urged to cancel their festive plans.
© 2021 AFP
