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.

Such good news!

I would love to hear from locals whether Labour actually campaigned much. I know there is no official alliance or agreement and obviously they stood a candidate, but some stuff I have read on Twitter suggests they didn't campaign much so I just wondered whether that was true.

I wanted the Tories to lose for the right reasons; not 'protest', not apathy. Not 'lent votes'.

In many ways, it's a bit like Brexit. People didn't vote to leave the EU, (before I'm challenged, the single salient fact is that the globally highest trending search term on Google on Sept 24 2016 (day after The Vote) was 'What is the EU?'...); they voted to Stick One To The Man.... instead of sticking it to the entire nation.

These voters didn't vote against the Cons due to the sleaze, graft, lying or corruption. They didn't turn away in disgust from this stuff. They voted either not at all, or other, to spank the Cons. Do Better. Maybe 'Cover up better'? It would be lovely to believe there is a growing groundswell of disgust. But that isn't it.

In fact, there are probably bewildered North Shropshire voters, today, meaning only to give their man a bit of a shot across the bows, not unseat them!

@HeatonGrove

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

Never made a difference in the long run.

This., Anyone thinking that this heralds a major LD revival is sadly deluded, I’m afraid. You can never go by by election results. People don’t vote the same as they would in a general election.

I'm a Labour Party member & I'm pleased that Labour voters chose to vote Lib Dem to ensure the Tory lost. I think that come the next General Election there will be much more & maybe even a pact between them both & probably SNP, SDLP & Plaid Cymru as well should there be a hung parliament. I know in my area in the council & mayoral elections there are deals being done.

Anyone thinking that this heralds a major LD revival is sadly deluded, I’m afraid. Alongside recent local by-election results, it suggests that detoxification is now under way.

May sees the locals, which will give more data.

It'll take time to reverse the 2015 rout but it has to start somewhere, it was not going to stay that way forever.

@Nat6999, I couldn't agree more. It's what I said to DD this morning. I'd
love to see an open pact, but I'll settle for an unofficial one.

I've voted Green in the past to keep UKIP out. It might get me barred from my chosen party (if it were publicly known), but I don't regret it. It worked.

I salute the Labour party folk who voted LD.

I'd love to see an open pact, but I'll settle for an unofficial one open pacts are unpopular, so unofficial will have to do

Well it shows how bad the clown and his lap dog Keir no opposition Starmer are doing if Lib Dems are winning. Others may have short memories but I still havent forgotten how they betrayed their voters back in 2010 when they formed an alliance with the Tories. Can we hand on heart trust them not to do the same again

I guarantee Conservatives will get back in. The British a public will forgive them for anything.

@Awwlookatmybabyspider I think the lib dems may think twice about a coalition with the Tories after last time!

Awwlookatmybabyspider It wasn't any detriment to Keir Starmer, Labour voters voted Lib Dem to get the Conservative candidate out, they tactically voted as a means to an end. I would imagine that there will be a lot of tactical votes should there be a General Election just to get the Tories out.

[quote rrhuth]@Awwlookatmybabyspider I think the lib dems may think twice about a coalition with the Tories after last time![/quote]
I'm not so sure.

I think there's such strong and wide-spread anti-Tory feeling that there may be a lot of tactical voting in the next election, fuelled by online information.
The questions are:
To what extent would Labour / Lib Dems go along with it like Labour did in North Shropshire, or would both local parties try and muddy the water and use dodgy stats to show "only we can beat the Tories in Blankshire East"?
Is a large enough share of the disaffected GBP politics-literate enough to make this work? It works in by-elections because everything is focused on one constituency, but at general elections I think a lot of people vote "for/against Boris" without much regard for their actual constituency race. The state of political knowledge in this country is pretty low.

A more cynical thought is that given the state of the Labour Party, if Starmer is still leader at the next election it might even be politically easier for him to be in a coalition with the Lib Dems. Just a musing.

@coffeerevelsrock

Such good news!

I would love to hear from locals whether Labour actually campaigned much. I know there is no official alliance or agreement and obviously they stood a candidate, but some stuff I have read on Twitter suggests they didn't campaign much so I just wondered whether that was true.

@coffeerevelsrock The Labour candidate was most definitely out and about in the market towns speaking to the voters and all the main parties bombarded households with literature both by leaflet drops and post - but the Lib Dems went above and beyond. They brought in teams from outside the area who set up a base camp in the area. We live in a village and they knocked on our door 3 times during the campaign - including the morning of the election to check we were voting. In fact they did so much campaigning that local Facebook pages were full of people complaining about the volume of leaflets and a few threatening not to vote Lib Dem because of it. But to be honest I don't think the Tories did a great deal of campaigning either - and the 'outsider' candidate appeared to have very little support from the local Conservative organisations.

@PassingByAndThoughtIdDropIn

A more cynical thought is that given the state of the Labour Party, if Starmer is still leader at the next election it might even be politically easier for him to be in a coalition with the Lib Dems. Just a musing.

Would prob suit me tbh.

I think coalitions in general are good. It means more people are represented in government.

*Would prob suit me tbh.

I think coalitions in general are good. It means more people are represented in government.*

We have a coalition government at the moment.

Clowns are well represented. There is an MP for Riyadh and Moscow. One representing the 19th Century, several others who think that they are MPs for rotten borough and just their to enrich themselves, in fact there is all manner of loonys. Some of them are barely numerate. I could go on.