The public has learned that Rishi Sunak’s policies saw him labelled Dr Death by the government’s scientific advisers during Covid. His week has got worse. The twin defeats inflicted on Mr Sunak’s government in Thursday’s byelections suggest he is in danger of destroying the Tories at the next general election. The contests were each triggered by grubby events, but the losses signal significant discontent in two wings of the coalition that won the Conservatives the general election in 2019.
In Staffordshire’s Tamworth, which registered one of the biggest leave votes in the Brexit referendum, the 23.9% swing from Conservative to Labour was the second highest in postwar byelection history. One of the bluest of blue seats, Mid Bedfordshire has never had a Labour MP since its creation in 1918. It does now. This is landslide territory, and Mr Sunak knows it.
