Lib Dems overturn 19,000 majority to win by-election in blow to Rishi Sunak

The Liberal Democrat Party overturned a 19,000 majority to win the Somerton and Frome by-election as the Conservative Party held onto the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was spared the prospect of being the first leader since 1968 to lose three by-elections on the same day as Labour failed to secure victory in Boris Johnson’s former seat. Sir Keir Starmer’s party had hoped to take Uxbridge and South Ruislip, which the former prime minister held with a majority of 7,210 in 2019, but Tory Steve Tuckwell managed to retain it with a majority of just 495.

Labour’s hopes are now pinned on Selby and Ainsty, where it is seeking to take a seat where the Conservatives were defending a 20,137 majority. The failure to secure victory in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London has led to a blame game among senior Labour figures over the capital’s mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to expand the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to cover outer boroughs.

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Labour candidate Danny Beales had distanced himself from the policy, saying it was “not the right time” to expand the £12.50 daily charge for cars which fail to meet emissions standards. The defeat in the seat was dubbed “Uloss” by a party insider in a sign of the unease at Mr Khan’s plan.

In his victory speech, new MP Mr Tuckwell said Mr Khan had cost Labour the seat. “It was his damaging and costly Ulez policy that lost them this election,” he said.

“This wasn’t the campaign Labour expected and Keir Starmer and his mayor Sadiq Khan need to sit up and listen to the Uxbridge and South Ruislip residents.”

Labour shadow cabinet minister Steve Reed acknowledged it had been a