(London) Voters vote Thursday in the north and south-west of England in two partial legislative elections which promise to be delicate for Boris Johnson and test the ability of the Conservative Prime Minister to win his camp.
Posted at 9:40 a.m.
Two weeks after surviving a no-confidence vote in the wake of “partygate” – a case of drunken parties in Downing Street during the confinements – the prospect for the Tories of losing two seats in Parliament risks accentuating the climate of distrust. within the majority.
However, Boris Johnson, 58, unsurprisingly dismissed out of hand any idea of resigning in the event of failure: “Are you crazy? “, he launched from Rwanda, where he is attending the Commonwealth summit, to the journalists who accompany him.
“Generally the parties in power do not win the by-elections, particularly in the middle of their mandate,” he said. “I am full of hope”, but “it is like that”.
The two elections are held following less than rosy affairs for the Conservatives, in constituencies heavy with political meaning.
In Wakefield, in the north of England, it is a traditionally Labor stronghold delighted in December 2019 during the triumph of the Tories which is at stake. Hoping to take over this section of the “red wall” collapsed during the last general elections, the leader opposition leader Keir Starmer claimed that Wakefield “could be the birthplace of the next Labor government”.
The polls give a clear lead – of around twenty points – to the Labor candidate Simon Lightwood, an employee of the British public health service, the NHS.
Tractorgate
The poll was triggered by the resignation of incumbent MP Imran Khan, sentenced to 18 months in prison for the sexual assault of a teenager. The constituency was continuously in Labor hands between 1932 and 2019.
Between anger over partygate, the fact that ‘a lot of people love Boris anyway’ and ‘are fed up’ hearing about it, Rose Nappa, a 44-year-old Wakefield voter, predicts an “interesting” vote.
“From what I see”, the idea during this vote is to “put a beating on Boris Johnson”, “the gap between the rich and the poor is only widening”, estimates as for her Judy Froggat, retired. “I was a teacher for 36 years and I always told the children to tell the truth”, and “the man who runs the country is a patent liar”, “this is a really bad message”, “I am outraged by what he has done,” she complains.
In Tiverton and Honiton, a constituency in south-west England that has been conservative since its creation in 1997, voters choose Neil Parish’s successor. The 65-year-old MP had tendered his resignation after admitting he had watched pornography on his phone in Parliament.
This ex-farmer by profession had explained that he had come across the site for adults while looking for tractors, before returning there in “a moment of madness”.
Strike and inflation
The Liberal Democrats hope to win, as they did last December in North Shropshire, a very rural conservative stronghold in northern England, lost after a lobbying scandal.
Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local and will close at 10 p.m. (6 a.m.-9 p.m. GMT). The results are expected at dawn on Friday.
Considered a winning machine after his triumph in the legislative elections two and a half years ago under the promise of achieving Brexit, Boris Johnson has seen this image crumble with the scandals that marred his mandate.
It remains for the moment in theory in the shelter, the current rules among the conservatives preventing a new vote of no confidence before a year.
The context is proving unfavorable for the Johnson government, with inflation at its highest level in 40 years – exceeding 9% – at the origin of a massive strike by railway workers, and the recent failure of a controversial attempt to deport migrants to Rwanda.
All after a succession of scandals to which is now added the “Carriegate” on alleged repeated attempts by Boris Johnson to obtain paid positions for his wife Carrie in the past.