Labour will get a chance to win back Wellingborough after voters there chose to trigger a byelection after the suspension of their MP, Peter Bone.
The recall petition was opened when the former minister was suspended from parliament for six weeks after a watchdog found he had bullied a staff member and exposed his genitals near their face.
The Conservatives are defending an 18,540 majority in the Northamptonshire constituency, which has swung between both main parties.
Bone said after the result was announced that the petition “came about as a result of an inquiry into alleged bullying and misconduct towards an ex-employee which was alleged to have occurred more than 10 years ago. These allegations are totally untrue and without foundation.”
He added: “I will have more to say on these matters in the new year.”
Bone said 68,897 people “chose not to sign the petition which represents 86.8% of the electorate” and there would be a byelection early next year.
“This seems bizarre as 86.8% of the electorate did not want to remove me from office, nor for there to be a byelection, and yet we are still to have one.”
The Liberal Democrats have historically received a very low share of the vote in Wellingborough and party sources have indicated they would not seriously contest the seat at a byelection.
It means that Labour have a chance to build on a string of byelection successes – which included victories in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire – with the symbolic capture of a seat it won in 1997 by only 200 votes, one of its surprise victories in that year.
Gen Kitchen, a charity fundraiser who grew up in Northamptonshire, has been selected to fight the seat for Labour and has been canvassing with party frontbenchers.
Bone, who was stripped of the Conservative whip and has been sitting as an independent, had previously vowed to fight on as an MP. The politician, who has held the seat since 2005, would be allowed to stand as a candidate.
Parliament’s behaviour watchdog, the independent expert panel, upheld in October an earlier investigation that found he broke the MPs’ code of conduct on four counts of bullying and one of sexual misconduct. The panel found that he had indecently exposed himself to a staff member in the bathroom of a hotel room during a work trip.
The byelection was triggered after 13.2% of the electorate backed a petition to recall Bone, meeting the threshold of 10% of the 79,046 eligible voters.
There has been speculation that a byelection would take place in February 2024 – adding an extra layer of complexity to any new year reset planned by the prime minister to get his party on a better footing before the general election.
Anneliese Dodds, chair of the Labour party, said voters in Wellingborough had the “opportunity to vote for a fresh start” during a byelection.
The MP said: “The results of the recall petition demonstrate that Wellingborough is ready for change.
“The Conservative party has presided over 13 years of failure, not least in the ‘professionalism, integrity and accountability at all levels’ that Rishi Sunak promised.”
Keiran Pedley, director of politics at Ipsos UK, has said previously that there would need to be a swing of at least 18 points for Labour to take the seat from the Tories.
