Confusing news from the byelections in Wellingborough and Kingswood, given that Downing Street has spent recent weeks explaining Britain is “pointing in the right direction” and has “turned the corner”. Someone should probably tell Britain, which is now officially in recession, and where Wellingborough just went Labour on the second biggest swing of its kind since the second world war. Kingswood likewise “turned the corner” away from the Conservatives to the tune of a 16.4% swing. Furthermore, it was an eye-catching night for Reform, the Tories’ Jill Stein. Or as Rishi Sunak put it this morning: “Our plan is working.” In which case, could there possibly be an argument for adopting George from Seinfeld’s iconic “do the opposite” strategy?
Entertainingly, the small hours saw a remarkable number of secretaries of state for cope out there in the wild. I clocked up several sightings of the phrase “hardly a ringing endorsement”, with special mention to the chairman of one Conservative association, who judged of Labour’s “pitiful” performance: “This is not a victory, but a calamitous defeat.” Regrettably, even accounting for this historic trouncing of Labour, the expectation in many quarters is that these results will prompt Tory plotters to fully activate their much-trailed “grid of shit” in an attempt to destabilise Sunak.
