Boris Johnson says he takes ‘personal responsibility’ for North Shropshire by-election loss
Boris Johnson says he takes “personal responsibility” for the North Shropshire by-election loss but has dismissed the question of whether he would resign, after the Liberal Democrats defeated the Conservatives with a 5,925 majority and 34 per cent swing.
Asked which things going wrong under his watch were to blame for the defeat, he talked about people hearing “a constant litany of stuff about politics and politicians and stuff that isn’t about them”. He also admitted he needed to “fix” issues such as the reported Downing Street parties and funding of the refurbishment of the No 10 flat.
Hours earlier, a senior Tory MP warned Mr Johnson he had just “one more strike” before the party considers ousting him. Sir Roger Gale told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “We got rid of a good prime minister [Theresa May] to install Boris Johnson and he has to prove he’s a good leader. Right now he isn’t doing that.”
Helen Morgan won with 17,957 votes, while her Tory rival Neil Shastri-Hurst had 12,032 votes. In 2019 the Tories won the seat with a 23,000 majority, and Ms Morgan came third.
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Anti-lockdown candidates worst defeated in North Shropshire
Anti-lockdown candidates were wiped out at the North Shropshire by-election, losing their deposits and in some cases winning fewer votes than the Monster Raving Loony Party.
The Freedom Alliance, which was set up this year “to resist the UK government’s draconian lockdown restrictions and attacks on medical freedom” came 12th out of 14 places in the contest, taking 0.15 per cent of the total. In 10th place was the right-wing populist party Heritage, which also ran on an anti-lockdown ticket.
Both candidates finished below Howling Laud Hope, leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, who received 118 votes (0.31 per cent) and came eighth. One place above was Martin Daubney, the deputy leader of actor Laurence Fox’s Reclaim party.
Our home affairs editor Lizzie Dearden has the full report:
Simon Case’s office accused of throwing lockdown parties
The cabinet secretary who has been charged with investigating whether the PM and his staff broke lockdown rules by hosting parties last year, is now himself caught up in accusations about such events.
Political website Guido Fawkes published a report on Friday, claiming a whistleblower said there were two events, one of which was planned and organised by staff in Mr Case’s private office – featuring “copious booze and music”.
While Mr Case wasn’t actively participating, the website states, the source claims to have spotted the cabinet secretary sticking his head into the room to call staff out at various points during the party to talk with them.
A second event allegedly took place last December and saw staff, again, drinking in Mr Case’s office before departing for drinks elsewhere.
Mr Case is yet to comment on the claims.
Rail fares to rise by 3.8% amid cost of living crisis
Stepping away from North Shropshire for a moment, the PM’s government has been accused of hitting hard-pressed families with “brutal” train ticket price hikes after announcing that rail fares will rise by 3.8 per cent from March 2022.
The Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed on Friday that rail companies will be allowed to raise prices, despite Britain’s mounting cost of living crisis, reports Adam Forrest.
The steepest increase since 2013 comes as the cost of fuel, clothing and food continue to soar, with changes to the energy price cap expected to increase gas and electricity bills in April.
PM needs to ‘sort himself out’ in 2022, says senior Tory
Our politics reporter Adam Forrest has the following:
Senior Tory backbencher Sir Charles Walker has told Times Radio that Boris Johnson has up to “a year to sort himself out” in the wake of the North Shropshire by-election result.
“The prime minister has got weeks, months, a year to sort himself out. Every day has got to be better than the day before,” he said.
“If we go on making unforced errors over the next three to six months or nine months, it will become a lot more serious. It’s serious now but it’s not at a critical level yet.”
Watch: Boris Johnson responds to North Shropshire result
Lib Dem leader: Illusion of inevitable Tory power shattered
Seeing Labour and Green supporters put tribalism aside was a beautiful thing, and gives us hope the Tories can be beaten at the next election, Ed Davey writes for The Independent:
Frost: We may still tirgger Article 16 of NI Protocol
Brexit Minister Lord Frost has warned he could still suspend the Northern Ireland protocol of the EU agreement, by triggering Article 16.
As talks for this year ended, he said it was disappointing that a fresh agreement with the European Union on its operation had not been reached.
While there had been “some progress”, he said, it had not been “as much, and not as quickly as we had hoped”.
He added: “A solution needs to be found urgently early next year. For as long as there is no agreed solution, we remain ready to use the Article 16 safeguard mechanism if that is the only way to protect the prosperity and stability of Northern Ireland and its people.”
European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said he hoped there would be a “gear change” in the negotiations with the UK on protocol issues in the new year.
PM: I take personal responsibility for by-election defeat
Boris Johnson has said he takes “personal responsibility” for Conservative defeat in the North Shropshire by-election, but refused to say whether he would step down if he felt it was in the interests of the party and the country.
Asked whether he would quit if it was in the interests of the Tory party and the UK for him to resign, he said it was exactly the kind of question that broke “the golden rule”.
“What we’re focusing on is trying to get the job done,” he said, and talked about boosting vaccinations and mitigating the worst consequences of omicron.
Asked about the defeat, he said: “Clearly the vote in North Shropshire is a very disappointing result.
“I totally understand people’s frustrations. I hear what the voters are saying in North Shropshire. In all humility I have got to accept that verdict.”
Cross-party tactics needed to oust Tories from No 10 – campaigner
Let’s get some commentary now from a so-called better democracy campaigner, who says political parties must work together if they hope to get the Tories out of Downing Street at the next general election.
Naomi Smith, the chief executive of campaign group Best for Britain, said:
“In North Shropshire, the voters united against the government even though the political parties didn’t. It’s clear that without a major tactical voting operation by Labour and Green voters, this win from third place would have been impossible for the Lib Dems.
“At a general election, where there is less focus on individual seats than in a by-election, our data shows that tactical voting will be insufficient to get rid of this government. Agreeing stand-asides in less than a quarter of all seats will be enough to turf the Tories out of Number 10. There is high demand among voters for the opposition parties to unite behind a single candidate in marginal seats come election time.
“By not working together, they will be leaving Britons at the mercy of a government that has damaged our health, our economy, our democracy and our global reputation.”
Inside the North Shropshire by-election count
At 4am on Friday morning in the Shrewsbury Sports Village, it felt entirely appropriate: their Conservative opponents here were utterly dazed.
A flurry of rumours around midnight suggested a better-than-expected showing for Labour candidate Ben Wood could deny Morgan a famous result and help the Tories retain the seat.
But, as the evening progressed, it became increasingly clear that anger over perceived Downing Street sleaze and misconduct had coalesced around the yellow vote. In particular, it was noted early on, the Lib Dems appeared to have taken large numbers of postal ballots – most of which would have been cast long before last week’s revelations of a lockdown-breaking Downing Street Christmas party caused widespread public fury.
Our north of England correspondent Colin Drury takes us through the count that led to an historic result.
