The Lib Dems have won north Shropshire

[onlychildhamster]

'The Liberal Democrats have won a stunning victory in the North Shropshire byelection, taking what had previously been a safe Conservative seat by a margin of nearly 6,000 votes, and capping a disastrous few weeks for Boris Johnson.

Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem candidate, won 17,957 votes, ahead of the Conservatives’ Neil Shastri-Hurst, on 12,032, a majority of 5,925. Labour’s Ben Wood was third, with 3,686 votes. Turnout was 46.3%.

The calamitous collapse in Conservative support – a 34% swing in a seat where they had a near-23,000 majority in 2019 – will prompt significant jitters among many Tory MPs, and is likely to raise questions about Johnson’s future.'

Wow just wow. The Tories have held this seat ever since it was created. Now they have lost it because of a few Christmas parties.

@VladmirsPoutine

It warms my cockles when traditional tory voters get irate. Because they're so insular and selfish they don't give a toss about things that don't impact them: FSM kids? doesn't matter. Windrush? doesn't matter. Didn't get to travel to their second home in Cornwall but the tories were getting off their tits during lockdown? OUTRAGE!!

Love it!

I know, it's true, but hey, they eventually got Al Capone on tax evasion, so whatever it takes!

@VladmirsPoutine

It warms my cockles when traditional tory voters get irate. Because they're so insular and selfish they don't give a toss about things that don't impact them: FSM kids? doesn't matter. Windrush? doesn't matter. Didn't get to travel to their second home in Cornwall but the tories were getting off their tits during lockdown? OUTRAGE!!

Love it!

So true.

@Hoppinggreen

I’m really really pleased. However, that area isn’t very multicultural and the Conservative candidate wasn’t entirely “local” so I wonder if that also played a part? Either way it’s great news

Multicultural? Some of those who live in North Shropshire are Welsh, how much more multicultural do you need than that?

As for local. Up against a candidate who is well known in the area who lives and works in the area, is a local councillor and campaigned on local issues, whose parents are local too a candidate from Shrewsbury or Wrexham would have struggled. Let alone someone from Birmingham who wears sharp suits and has nothing in common with any of the electorate.

@VladmirsPoutine

It warms my cockles when traditional tory voters get irate. Because they're so insular and selfish they don't give a toss about things that don't impact them: FSM kids? doesn't matter. Windrush? doesn't matter. Didn't get to travel to their second home in Cornwall but the tories were getting off their tits during lockdown? OUTRAGE!!

Love it!

I don't think that a significant proportion of North Shropshire voters have second homes in Cornwall - it's a very average income constituency. If Tory voters were drawn exclusively from the wealthy they'd be much easier to defeat than they are. But yes most of them have families which they were forbidden to see last Christmas.

jgw1
I think you can get a lot more multicultural than English and Welsh (which are actually nationalities) but let’s use ethnic diversity instead if it clarifies what I meant

My heart is full of happiness 🙃😂
Is it possible that Johnson will be replaced with someone who understands politics, negotiations and diplomacy; someone who can actually study detail and convey this to his cabinet. Someone who has integrity and can be trusted to not spill lies around in the Commons?

The issue in this seat is also that farmers (particularly the more "gentleman" type) have realised that there is no grand plan for agriculture since we left the EU and income will drop, often substantially.

@Flapjacker48

The issue in this seat is also that farmers (particularly the more "gentleman" type) have realised that there is no grand plan for agriculture since we left the EU and income will drop, often substantially.

This. And if it’s widespread among farmers then there’s quite a number of safe Tory seats that could also go unless they somehow fix what they broke.

All those lies about farming and fishing may be about to come back and haunt them. The one rule for them, one rule for us stuff cuts through with the voters, combine it with the Brexit chickens coming home to roost and the Tories could well be toast rather than this being a by-election oddity.

We are in a rural area with lots of farms. Our Tory MP has never supported them.

Brilliant news that has cheered me up this morning!
Listening to Helen Morgan speak, calmly politely and intelligently, the contrast with BJ was immense. More people like her in politics is what we need.

Its a safe tory seat. It has been for 200 years.

If they can lose this, what can they not lose? Finchley and GG? Beaconsfield? Most of the SE?

Living in Shropshire we were delighted to wake up this morning to this news!

Happy to live here this morning!

I think also Boris Johnson's own seat is creaking at the seems. Thing is when its your one job to look after those who really don't give a fuck about much else but their own pocket and you manage to even fuck that up then there's no hope left.

I think Boris’s seat was considered at risk anyway, as are a number of the Tory seats in the south. As one of those MPs should definitely have been worried.

This result might make a whole new bunch of MPs worried about their seats.

@Hoppinggreen

jgw1 I think you can get a lot more multicultural than English and Welsh (which are actually nationalities) but let’s use ethnic diversity instead if it clarifies what I meant

Trust me although the English and Welsh in this part of the world are actually quite similar in background and outlook, they would happily have a long argument about how culturally different they are. The wider point is that if you are not from the area, you may as well be from Mars, a candidate from Shrewsbury, Chester, Birmingham or Tuvalu would face the same challenges.

I am old enough to remember when the Lib Dems won every by-election.

Never made a difference in the long run.

@HappydaysArehere

My heart is full of happiness 🙃😂 Is it possible that Johnson will be replaced with someone who understands politics, negotiations and diplomacy; someone who can actually study detail and convey this to his cabinet. Someone who has integrity and can be trusted to not spill lies around in the Commons?

That rules out just about all of the current cabinet.

@HeatonGrove This has been compared to Lib Dems winning Christchurch in 1993. Eventually Labour started winning too.

Then what happened in 1997... Labour won.

@onlychildhamster

Well we can live in hope! But that was a very different Labour Party….

[quote HeatonGrove]@onlychildhamster

Well we can live in hope! But that was a very different Labour Party….[/quote]
The Tory party is more different.
Oh to have Major, Hurd and Portillo back.

I haven't stopped laughing since this morning tbh.

The reason this loss is so hilarious is if they had just let Owen Paterson do his 30 days suspension, the by-election would never have even been held!

Johnson is a prize prat, he's absolutely rubbish at party management, and leadership, and governing. He was annoying but less of an issue when he was just dangling off zipwires but he's causing real damage now.

Rrhuth, that’s the funniest bit. It a completely unnecessary by election caused only by their own corruption and incompetence.

@HeatonGrove

I am old enough to remember when the Lib Dems won every by-election.

Never made a difference in the long run.

it really does make a massive difference because the main reason people cite for not voting lib dem is not believing they can win.

You can not compare lib dem by-elections in 2021 to the 1980s because there has been considerable political dealignment.

This result is significant in combination with local election results in the last month because it suggests the lib dems are basically detoxified now... which could make for a really fun time in a lot of lib dem/tory seats at the next election.

I love by-elections btw, in case that wasn't clear