Markus Andrews

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailTop polling guru Sir John Curtice has sent the Conservatives a stark warning following their disaster double by-election defeat, stating the party is in “deep, deep electoral trouble”.Sir John told the BBC that although the 21-point drop in Kingswood is in line with what the party are currently suffering in the opinion polls, it is the Wellingborough result of 37-38 points that is “the biggest Tory loss the Conservatives have ever managed to suffer in a post-war by-election”.The pollster acknowledged that the “circumstances around Peter Bone’s downfall” may have added to the losses, but that “this morning, we are still looking at a government that, at the moment, is staring defeat in the face”. Sir John said: “[This] confirms that the Conservatives are still in deep, deep electoral trouble. “The 21 point drop in support in Kingswood in line with the 19-20 point drop that they’re currently suffering in the opinion polls. “The 37 to 38 points drop in Wellingborough is actually the biggest Tory loss the Conservatives have ever manage to suffer in a post war by election.”He added: “Now, it may well be that the circumstances surrounding Peter Bone’s downfall and his replacement by his partner perhaps added to the lead party’s woes in Wellingborough, but there is no gainsaying the fact that this morning we are still looking at a government that, at the moment, is staring defeat in the face of the next general election.”Mr Bone received a six-week suspension from the Commons when an inquiry found he had subjected a staff member to bullying and sexual misconduct.Labour Party candidate Gen Kitchen was declared the winner in the Wellingborough by-electionThe Conservatives faced two crushing by-election results overnight, as Labour overturned huge Tory majorities in Kingswood and Wellingborough. In the Kingswood contest, Damien Egan overturned an 11,000 Tory majority, winning with a majority of 2,501 votes, while the Wellingborough by-election saw disgraced former Conservative MP Peter Bone replaced with Labour’s Gen Kitchen, who secured 13,844 votes to beat the Tories’ by more than 6,000.The back-to-back losses place more pressure on Rishi Sunak, as strong performances in both constituencies by the right-wing challenger party Reform UK are likely to embolden party critics about the prime minister’s direction.The results come just hours after official figures show that Britain has fallen into a recession, after economic growth had stalled as gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, following a decline of 0.1 per cent in the previous three months.Tory former business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said the Conservatives needed to “learn from the result” in Kingswood.He said: “I think we should learn from this result and look at what happened with the Reform Party vote. Conservative Party votes are most likely to come from people who stay at home or who voted Reform.”He suggested the party cut taxes, pull back from net zero measures and “take more of the advantages of Brexit”.Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden has said both by-election results were “very disappointing”.Mr Holden told Sky News: “Very disappointing results – no need to shy away from that – in both Kingswood and Wellingborough.“I think one of the most disappointing things for me though is the turnout in the by-elections was so significantly down compared to the previous general elections in both seats. I want to see people actively participating in democracy.“I think that shows we’ve got a lot to do to get people out there and enthused to vote again, and probably the Opposition have a similar challenge.”He added: “I think we’ve got to look at both these by-elections in the context in which they happened as well.“We had an MP in Kingswood who stood down and also obviously in Wellingborough we had a parliamentary investigation, which led to a recall petition which led to an MP being forced to stand down.“Not ideal circumstances for any form of by-election for any party.” More

Sir Keir Starmer defended his judgement after Labour suspended two parliamentary candidates over their remarks about Israel.The Labour leader spoke to BBC Breakfast on Friday morning, 16 February, following a tumultuous week for the party.“I did something that no leader of the Labour party has ever done before, which is to remove a candidate in a by-election where they cannot be replaced because I was so determined to take decisive action in relation to anti-semitism,” the Labour leader said.Mr Starmer has faced backlash for the speed of his decision after a damaging 48 hours in which he initially backed Azhar Ali over anti-semitic comments, before changing his mind. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA Tory minister has disowned a misleading video clip shared by his own party which showed Sadiq Khan mistakenly calling Labour a party of antisemitism.Business minister Kevin Hollinrake said he had “no idea” why his party would publish the shortened video clip, which failed to show the mayor of London go on to correct his mistake, and was captioned: “Labour saying the quiet part out loud.”Asked whether the clip – published on the official Tory X/Twitter account – signals “how low the Conservatives are going to go“ in the upcoming general election, he told BBC Newsnight: “I think we should give an accurate portrayal of what somebody’s said. Clearly he’s made a mistake. “I wouldn’t support something which is clearly an honest mistake from Sadiq Khan.”Pressed on why his party had used the video, he said: “I’ve no idea. That’s a question to ask CCHQ, and I’m sure questions will be asked.”But Tory party chair Richard Holden defended the video, telling Times Radio the following morning: “What it highlights is an issue of antisemitism at the heart of the Labour Party. And it’s not been edited. It was clipped.”“I think we both know the difference between editing something to misconstrue or clipping something. And I think the issue we’re trying to highlight, and I think which is really important, is that the Labour Party hasn’t changed, whether it comes to antisemitism within it under Keir Starmer.”The Labour Party suspended two prospective MPs this week after news outlets published a recording of comments made at a meeting in Rochdale. Sir Keir Starmer faced questions after initially declining to suspend ex-Tony Blair aide Azhar Ali as the party’s candidate for the upcoming Rochdale by-election, after he suggested Israel allowed the 7 October massacre by Hamas as a pretext to invade Gaza. Sir Keir was forced to U-turn the following night after further comments of Mr Ali’s complaining about the influence of “certain Jewish quarters” in the media were published by the Daily Mail. Mr Ali will now sit as an independent if he wins the by-election.A further recording from the same meeting, published by Guido Fawkes, then saw Hyndburn candidate Graham Jones swiftly suspended, after he was heard saying “f***ing Israel” and mistakenly saying Britons who fight for the Israel Defence Forces are breaking British law and should be “locked up”.In the fuller clip of Mr Khan’s Sky News interview, the mayor of London said: “It certainly shouldn’t be acceptable in a party like mine that is proud to be both anti-racist, but also antisemitic – I beg your pardon, tackling antisemitism.”It came as the Conservatives suffered two devastating by-election defeats, in Kingswood and Wellingborough, where the huge 28.5 per cent swing to Sir Keir‘s party marked the second largest at a by-election since the Second World War. More

Sir Keir Starmer was asked how he’s trying to be “more appealing” to voters ahead of a general election this year.The Labour leader spoke to BBC Breakfast on Friday morning, 16 February, after the party won two by-elections the day before.“I’m working on how to be the best leader I can be of the Labour Party in very difficult circumstances,” he said, referencing the 2019 election as Labour’s worst defeat since 1935 (he mistakenly says 2035).“The progress we’ve made from the worst result since 1935, to being now credible contenders, and that’s all we are, for the 2024 election.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailGen Kitchen has just become the first Labour MP for Wellingborough since Peter Bone turned the seat blue in 2005.The Northamptonshire constituency was the second most marginal seat for Labour in Sir Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide, with Paul Stinchcombe winning by just 187 votes.And Labour figures are confident that Ms Kitchen’s win, beating Tory candidate Helen Harrison by more than 6,000 votes, puts the party on course for a landslide under Sir Keir Starmer later this year.Gen Kitchen campaigned with Keir Starmer ahead of polls opening in Wellingborough Amid the fallout of another dramatic by-election win for Labour The Independent asks, who is the new MP for Wellingborough?Ms Kitchen was born in Northamptonshire to navy parents who think the idea of her becoming an MP is “a bit mad”.But the 28-year-old, who went to a local state school during the last Labour government, is determined to fight for the constituents she says have been “left behind under Conservative leadership”.She graduated in 2016 from Queen Mary University of London with a degree in history and politics and spent the next seven years working in the charity sector. Her most recent role was running philanthropy for a children’s health charity.Ms Kitchen is also a former councillor in Newham, London, where she was responsible for economic recovery in the area as well as boosting residents’ health.Gen Kitchen will join the House of Commons in the coming days as one of its youngest MPs She is set to join the House of Commons in the coming days as one of its youngest MPs.An avid Taylor Swift fan, with tickets to the popstar’s Eras tour in May, Ms Kitchen has earned the nickname “zen Gen” among her campaign team, partly due to her penchant for spa days and partly for her ability to remain calm throughout the gruelling campaign.Ms Kitchen had been hoping to fight to become Wellingborough’s MP in this year’s general election. But, midway through her honeymoon in Suffolk, disgraced ex-MP Mr Bone was found to have indecently exposed himself to a staff member and trapped him in the bathroom of a hotel room.It became obvious a by-election was coming and, with fish and chips in one hand and her two dogs in the other, Labour’s regional director rang her and she came back early.Ms Kitchen was helped to victory by the Tories’ selection of Mr Bone’s girlfriend Ms Harrison to fight the seat for them. And she was likely boosted by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which stood ex-MEP Ben Habib in the seat as part of its war on the Conservatives. More

This is the moment Labour’s Gen Kitchen wins the Wellingborough by-election, overturning a Conservative majority of more than 18,500.Ms Kitchen said she was “ecstatic” at the result, and the double by-election win for Labour shows people are “fed up” and want change.The candidate said she cut short her honeymoon to begin campaigning when she was told former Conservative MP Peter Bone had been suspended from the Commons.She was announced as the winner on Friday (16 February) just over two hours after Labour also triumphed at Kingswood and she achieved the second-largest swing from Tory to Labour at a by-election since the Second World War. More

This is the moment Labour’s Damien Egan is pronounced the winner of the Kingswood by-election.As the party overturned a Conservative majority of more than 11,000, Mr Egan claimed “The Tories have sucked the hope out of our country”.In his victory speech in the early hours of Friday morning (16 February), Mr Egan thanked the activists who helped him win and the people of Kingswood for putting their trust in him.He said: “It’s a trust that I promise to repay, to show you that politics can be different and it can make a difference.” More

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailMarjorie Taylor Greene has doubled down on her mistaken assertion that British Foreign Secretary David Cameron compared Republicans unwilling to support further aid to Ukraine to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. “Well, number one, I really could care less what Lord Cameron has to say. I just don’t care,” she told The Independent on Thursday. “And number two, he was calling us Hitler and calling us horrible names and that is extremely rude and he needs to stop making that association.“He needs to consider what he’s actually saying,” she added. “So I just don’t care. He really needs to worry about his country. I think over there, they’re having all kinds of problems, they’re entering a recession. They need to worry about their problems and leave our country alone.”This comes after the hard-right Republican congresswoman said Lord Cameron “can kiss my a**” on Wednesday after he urged the US Congress to pass aid to Ukraine and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, citing the appeasement of Hitler in the lead-up to the Second World War.The Democratic Senate has already passed a bill which would send further aid to Ukraine but the legislation faces a steep uphill climb in the House.In an op-ed published in The Hill on Wednesday, Lord Cameron wrote: “As Congress debates and votes on this funding package for Ukraine, I am going to drop all diplomatic niceties. I urge Congress to pass it.“I believe our joint history shows the folly of giving in to tyrants in Europe who believe in redrawing boundaries by force,” he added. “I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s. He came back for more, costing us far more lives to stop his aggression.“I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Putin in 2008, when he invaded Georgia, or the uncertainty of the response in 2014, when he took Crimea and much of the Donbas — before coming back to cost us far more with his aggression in 2022,” Lord Cameron, a former UK prime minister, argued. “I want us to show the strength displayed since 2022, as the West has helped Ukrainians liberate half the territory seized by Putin, all without the loss of any NATO service personnel.”“I don’t want to read it, I know the British embassy wanted me to read it – I have way too many other things to do than read his op-ed,” Ms Greene said on Thursday. James Matthews of Sky News asked Ms Greene on Wednesday: “David Cameron says that you should vote through funding for Ukraine. What do you say to that?”“I think he tried to compare us to Hitler also,” Ms Greene said, mixing up the appeasers, whose conduct Lord Cameron did cite, and the Nazi leader.Ms Greene has previously faced criticism for making comments comparing the use of masks during the pandemic to the Holocaust. She later visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC and apologised for the remarks.Speaking about Lord Cameron on Wednesday, Ms Greene told Sky News: “If that’s the kind of language he wants to use, I really have nothing to say to him.”“He likened you can do to an appeaser for Hitler, in not voting through funding for Ukraine, are you an appeaser for Putin?” Matthews asked.“I think that I really don’t care what David Cameron has to say. I think that’s rude name-calling, and I don’t appreciate that type of language. And David Cameron needs to worry about his own country, and frankly, he can kiss my a**,” she added.During a visit to Poland on Thursday, the foreign secretary said that he is not someone who wants “to lecture American friends, or tell American friends what to do”, but he added, “We really do want to see Congress pass that money to support Ukraine economically, but crucially militarily in the months ahead.”Speaking at a press conference, Lord Cameron said: “We have to do everything we can to make sure that Ukraine can succeed in this year and beyond.“We must not let Putin think he can out-wait us or last us out, and that’s why this vote in Congress is so crucial.”He added: “And I say this as someone who is not wanting in any way to lecture American friends, or tell American friends what to do.“I say it as someone who has a deep and abiding love of the United States – of their democracy, of their belief in freedom – [and] as someone who really believes in the importance of our alliance.” More