Sunak says Mid Beds by-elex defeat was 'down to local factors'
He says Labour's win is 'disappointing'
Last updated 20th Oct 2023
The Prime Minister has described the double Conservative by-election losses in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire as "disappointing" but said there were "local factors at play".
Rivals Labour took both seats, which enjoyed healthy Tory majorities, in results that party leader Sir Keir Starmer said "made history".
Both contests were triggered by the high-profile departures of their previous MPs.
Former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries quit - eventually - as Mid Bedfordshire's MP in anger at being denied a peerage in former prime minister Boris Johnson's resignation honours list.
In Tamworth, Chris Pincher resigned after being found to have drunkenly groped two men in an "egregious case of sexual misconduct" at London's exclusive Carlton Club last year - an incident which helped trigger Mr Johnson's exit from No 10 because of his handling of the situation.
Rishi Sunak, speaking to broadcasters as he prepared to fly to the UK from Egypt, said they were "obviously disappointing results" but that it was "important to remember the context".
He said: "Mid-term elections are always difficult for incumbent governments.
"And of course there are also local factors at play here."
The Prime Minister, who is returning after a diplomatic blitz of the Middle East, said he remained "committed to delivering on the priorities of the British people" following the defeats.
Mr Sunak said he would "keep on" with his five priorities, which includes halving inflation and stopping migrants in small boats crossing the Channel.
He also highlighted his recent "long-term" decisions - such as halting the HS2 rail programme at Birmingham to invest the Ă‚ÂŁ36 billion saved into other transport projects and rowing back on some net zero commitments - that he argued would "change our country for the better".
But some Tories are calling for the Prime Minister to be "braver" if he is to turn the party's fortunes around ahead of a likely general election next year.
Opposition leader Sir Keir claimed Labour was "redrawing the political map" by taking seats which had been comfortably Conservative as his party plots its return to power.
During a visit to Tamworth, where Labour's Sarah Edwards defeated Tory Andrew Cooper by a majority of 1,316, Sir Keir said voters choosing to back his party "replicates what is going on across the country" and that people wanted a "fresh start".
The Conservatives were defending a 19,634 majority in the Staffordshire constituency, but a 23.9 percentage point swing to Labour saw that eradicated.
The result was the second-highest ever by-election swing to Labour.
There was even better news for Sir Keir in Mid Bedfordshire, announced just half an hour after Ms Edwards' victory, which witnessed the largest majority overturned by Labour at a by-election since 1945.
The Tories had held Mid Bedfordshire since 1931, with a 24,664 Conservative majority in 2019.
But Alistair Strathern took the seat with a majority of 1,192 over his Tory rival Festus Akinbusoye, with a swing of 20.5 percentage points to Labour.