Since in the by-elections in two English districts that the ruling conservatives have held for years, candidates of the opposition Labor Party were elected, Prime Minister of Great Britain Rishi Sunak today called on voters and his troubled Conservative Party to rally around him.
The outcome of those partial elections, although in only two districts, strengthens the fear of the conservatives that, after 14 years in power, they will suffer a major defeat in the general elections that are expected in Great Britain in less than a year.
According to polls, the Tories - which is the popular name for the Conservative Party - consistently have between 10 and even 20 percentage points less support than Labour, the centre-left party.
In the southwest of England, in the Kingswood district, a seat in the lower house of the British Parliament was won by the Labor candidate Damien Egan, and in the Wellingborough district in central England, the Labor candidate Jen Kitchen won the parliamentary seat, according to the results published today.
In both of these constituencies, the Conservatives won with large majorities in 2019.
However, in a special by-election this year, they faced a collapse in support from the electorate.
In those elections, the representatives of the Labor Party came first, the representatives of the Conservatives came second, and the representatives of the British Reform Party - the former Brexit Party came third.
It shows that conservatives are facing pressure from both the left and the right.
While Labor leader Keir Starmer says the results reflect the people's desire for change, Sunak called on voters to "stick to our plan because it is starting to bring about the changes the country wants and needs."
"It is clear that as a country we have gone through a lot in the last few years, but I really believe that we are on the right course since the beginning of this year," Sunak told reporters.
The two-constituency election, in which the Conservatives lost, was held as one Tory MP resigned in protest at the party's lack of commitment to Britain's "green transition" plans, and another was sacked amid allegations of bullying and sexual misconduct.
Since the last general election, the Conservatives have lost ten special elections - more than any British administration since the 1960s.
Only since Sunak came to power, conservatives have lost six parliamentary seats and gained one.
In October 2022, Sunak replaced party colleague Liz Truss, whose decisions severely shook the British economy, and she became the shortest-serving prime minister in the history of Great Britain.
Sunak is already the fifth conservative prime minister since 2016. He managed to restore the country's stability to some extent, but failed to revive the popularity of his party, which has been in power since 2010. During that reign, unpopular austerity measures were introduced, Great Britain left the European Union, had a hard time going through the global covid-19 pandemic and entered the war in Ukraine, which caused the highest price increases in decades and the recently noted recession of the British economy.
Bonus video:
