{"id":50664,"date":"2022-12-02T15:26:57","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T15:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=50664"},"modified":"2022-12-02T16:15:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T16:15:17","slug":"by-election-the-conservatives-on-borrowed-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/by-election-the-conservatives-on-borrowed-time\/","title":{"rendered":"By-election results: The Conservatives \u2018on borrowed time\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Labour party has won the Chester by-election by a landslide, with a shocking 13.8% swing from Tory to Labour.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Samantha Dixon, the by-election winner, believes that the results were reflective of national sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think that the voters in Chester are that much different from those across the country. I think that it\u2019s time now for a general election and I think Labour will win as decisively as I have done today,\u201d Dixon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2022\/dec\/02\/labour-easily-holds-city-of-chester-seat-in-first-byelection-test-for-sunak\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2022\/dec\/02\/labour-easily-holds-city-of-chester-seat-in-first-byelection-test-for-sunak\">told the Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dixon won the seat with the party\u2019s largest historical vote share, and this comes as a brutal wake up call for Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party; this is the worst result for the party in Chester since 1832.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Huge congratulations to @CllrSDixon who will be an excellent MP for City of Chester.<br><br>The message to Rishi Sunak\u2019s Conservative government is clear: People are fed up of 12 years of Tory rule and want the change Labour offers.<br><br>It&#39;s time for a Labour government.<\/p>&mdash; Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Keir_Starmer\/status\/1598598062733111296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 2, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After a rocky, whiplash year for the Tories, the PM inherited sky-high ratings for the opposition with many questioning his ability to unite the country behind his own party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The majority of the public have lost faith in the Conservative Party, with YouGov reporting that nearly 64% of participants feel they are untrustworthy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1010\" height=\"57\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-02-at-14.13.57.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50692\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-02-at-14.13.57.png 1010w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-02-at-14.13.57-300x17.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-02-at-14.13.57-768x43.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1010px) 100vw, 1010px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/yougov.co.uk\/topics\/politics\/trackers\/is-the-conservative-trustworthy-or-untrustworthy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"943\" height=\"466\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-02-at-14.07.16-edited.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50693\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-02-at-14.07.16-edited.png 943w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-02-at-14.07.16-edited-300x148.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-02-at-14.07.16-edited-768x380.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 943px) 100vw, 943px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Statistics and graph: YouGov.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The election, triggered by <a href=\"https:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/labour-mp-christian-matheson-resigns-amidst-sexual-misconduct-claims\/\">Christian Matheson\u2019s resignation<\/a>, was <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/crushing-defeat-for-rishi-sunak-is-an-ominous-sign-for-despondent-red-wall-tories-12759917\">described<\/a> as a \u201cdisaster\u201d for the current Tory government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Labour will almost certainly be focused on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.uk\/about\/how\/elections-and-voting\/by-elections\/by-elections-2019\/\">upcoming by-election<\/a> in Stretford and Urmston and next year\u2019s in West Lancashire, all triggered by MP resignations on both sides of the aisle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along with continuous MP resignations, the Tory Party review is <a href=\"https:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/sajid-javid-former-chancellor-will-stand-down-at-next-election\/\" title=\"https:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/sajid-javid-former-chancellor-will-stand-down-at-next-election\/\">triggering announcements<\/a> that many leaders will not be seeking re-election in the next general election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Words: Cerah Handsaker | Subbing: Laura Parry<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Labour party has won the Chester by-election by a landslide, with a shocking 13.8% swing from Tory to Labour. Samantha Dixon, the by-election winner, believes that the results were reflective of national sentiment. \u201cI&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":50786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[1505,7365,6543],"class_list":["post-50664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-conservatives","tag-rishi-sunak","tag-uk-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50664"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50850,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50664\/revisions\/50850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}