British Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday after a series of “very bad” election results, including defeats in Thursday’s by-election.
These defeats “are the latest in a series of very poor results for our party,” Dowden wrote in a letter to the prime minister, adding that “someone has to take responsibility“.
In Thursday’s by-terms, seen as a test of Boris Johnson’s popularity with voters, the Conservatives lost Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats and Wakefield to the main opposition Labor Party.
Boris Johnson’s popularity tested in two parliamentary elections
In Wakefield, in the north of England, what was traditionally a Labor stronghold was at stake, but which was conquered by the Tories in December 2019, contributing the overwhelming majority of the ‘Tories’.
The choice was caused by the resignation of MP Imran Khanwho was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexually harassing a 15-year-old boy.
The constituency was held by Labor continuously between 1932 and 2019, but strong local support for Brexit benefited the Conservatives.
In Tiverton and Honiton, a constituency in south-west England that had been Tory-owned since its inception in 1997, voters voted to choose Neil Parish’s successor.
The 65-year-old MP resigned after admitting he viewed porn on his cell phone while in parliament.
The former farmer by profession claimed to have mistakenly entered an adult page while looking for tractors and then, in a “crazy moment”, returned to the same site.
In a sign of unease within the party, Tiverton and Honiton candidate Helen Hurford twice refused to comment on Boris Johnson’s honesty in an interview with The Guardian newspaper.
The prime minister “thinks he’s honest,” he replied.
Considered an election-winning machine after victory in the legislative two and a half years ago, under the promise of achieving Brexit, Johnson’s reputation has been hit by successive scandals during the mandate.
Eager to assert himself on the international stage, Johnson last week canceled his presence at a meeting of Conservatives in the north of England to visit kyiv for the second time and, together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reiterate the UK’s support for the Russian invasion. . . .
Internally, the context is not favorable for the government, with inflation at 9.1%, the highest level in 40 yearssomething that is increasing social unrest, with strikes underway in rail transport and others planned in education and health.
With the image eroded by the scandal of the parties in the Downing Street official residence during the confinement imposed by the pandemic, the Executive has recently been involved in controversy again, due to the failure of the attempt to deport illegal immigrants to Rwanda.
Meanwhile, a new controversy has arisen, which the press has dubbed “Carriegate”, over Boris Johnson’s alleged repeated attempts to secure gainful employment for his wife, Carrie.
Source: Observadora
