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  5. Live by-election updates: Boris Johnson's Conservatives lose two by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton & Honiton

Live by-election updates: Boris Johnson's Conservatives lose two by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton & Honiton

Catherine Neilan   

Live by-election updates: Boris Johnson's Conservatives lose two by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton & Honiton
Boris Johnson during a visit to Kigali, Rwanda, in June 2022.Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
  • Boris Johnson's Conservatives have two both by-elections, adding fresh pressure onto the prime minister.
  • The Wakefield race was triggered after a former Tory MP was jailed for sexually abusing a 15-year-old.

Boris Johnson is under fresh pressure to keep his job, after losing two key seats overnight in by-elections held in Wakefield and Tiverton & Honiton.

Wakefield, a Red Wall constituency in the North of England, was won by Labour's Simon Lightwood with a majority of almost 5,000.

Tiverton & Honinton, a more traditional Conservative seat, also fell, with the Liberal Democrats' Richard Foord overturning a majority of more than 24,000 – a swing of almost 30 per cent.

Foord said it was a referendum on Johnson's beleagured leadership, after 148 of his own MPs voted against the prime minister.

"There is a real feeling now that he has overstayed his welcome as our prime minister," he said.

Analysis: Pressure is on after Tories lose both by-elections

Good Morning. 

The UK is waking up to the news that the Conservatives have lost both by-elections, piling further pressure onto Boris Johnson. 

The Red Wall seat of Wakefield had been expected to swing back to Labour, but Tories had still be hopeful that Tiverton & Honiton would remain blue, albiet with a smaller majority. 

But the by-election has ended such hopes, and laid bare the scale of the challenge now facing Johnson's Conservatives in both the Red Wall and traditional Tory areas.

"It would be a real mistake for the Conservatives to retain Boris Johsnon as their leader and it could be electoral suicide for them," Richard Foord told Sky News after winning.

He said Johnson should take a lesson from Neil Parish, his predecessor, who resigned over allegations he was watching pornography in the House of Commons.

Number crunching: The vote in Wakefield

The Red Wall seat of Wakefield has returned to Labour, after it fell to the Conservatives in 2019. 

The party's Simon Lightwood won the seat with nearly half the total votes - here is how that looks:

 

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