By-election special: Is Boris Johnson doomed by the double defeat?
The New Statesman | UK politics and culture
The New Statesman
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 June 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
In a major blow to Boris Johnson, the Conservatives have lost the seats of Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield to the Liberal Democrats and Labour respectively, by double-digit margins. In the wake of the results, Oliver Dowden, the co-chairman of the Conservative Party, became the first cabinet minister to resign (if implicitly) over the PMs leadership.
Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Harry Lambert and the New Statesman’s polling expert Ben Walker to discuss the crushing Tory defeat, the power of tactical voting, fatigue among Tory activists and Keir Starmer’s strategy, or lack thereof, as Labour leader.
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Transcript
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| 0:24.8 | MUSIC |
| 0:28.8 | Hi, I'm Anish. |
| 0:30.8 | I'm Harry. And I'm Ben. |
| 0:32.8 | And on today's episode of the New Statesman Podcast, |
| 0:35.8 | we're doing a special reaction to the bio-election results. |
| 0:39.8 | MUSIC |
| 0:45.8 | So it's the morning after a night of two very exciting bio-election results. |
| 0:52.8 | Labour won back Wakefield with a 12.7% point swing on a 39% turnout. |
| 0:58.8 | And that's Labour's first bio-election gain from the Tories in a while. |
| 1:02.8 | And it held seat between 1932 and 2019 before it fell. |
| 1:06.8 | To the Tories and has been classed as a so-called red wall seat since then. |
| 1:11.8 | And the Lib Dems have taken Tivitan and Honitan with a staggering 29.9% swing from the Tories. |
| 1:18.8 | And that was a 52% turnout. |
... |
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