Here's a summary of today ...
- Labour won in Wakefield, which had been a Labour seat since the second world war until the 2019 election, with a very healthy swing of almost 13%. But the Tories also lost Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats.
- Oliver Dowden quit as Tory chair, taking swipe at Johnson’s conduct, after Tories suffered a historic byelection defeat.
- Johnson suggested the cost of living crisis was to blame for the Tory elections defeat. Not his own conduct or leadership.
- Michael Heseltine, the former Conservative deputy prime minister, who now sits as an unaffiliated peer in the Lords after falling out with his party over Brexit, told Sky News Johnson wouldn’t survive a second no confidence vote.
- Sir Malcolm Rifkind, foreign secretary in John Major’s government, told Sky News that if government ministers want Boris Johnson to quit, they should go and tell him. He claimed that a dozen ministers would force him out.
- Michael Howard urged cabinet ministers to oust Johnson. But would not say whom he wanted to see as the next leader.
- Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary and probably Boris Johnson’s most loyal supporter in cabinet, has claimed byelections are “useless” as a guide to what will happen in a subsequent general election.
- Speaking at a news conference Boris Johnson said of the defeats in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton: “I’m not going to pretend these are brilliant results. We’ve got to listen, we’ve got to learn.”
- The former health secretary Matt Hancock told Times Radio that he backs Boris Johnson, and that the party needs to “pull together” for a general election in which “the only alternative will be a combination of Nicola Sturgeon and Keir Starmer”.
That’s it from me for today, and for the blog. Thanks for reading.
