The Conservatives are facing a nervous wait as votes are counted overnight in the North Shropshire by-election, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson hoping his party can hold on to what has been a long-time Tory safe seat.
Between 7am to 10pm on Thursday, voters in the constituency cast their ballots to decide on a new local MP following Owen Paterson‘s decision to quit the House of Commons last month.
A result in the by-election is due to be declared in the early hours of Friday morning.
Ex-cabinet minister Mr Paterson resigned as North Shropshire’s MP, a seat he held for 24 years, following last month’s furious row over his £110,000 a year private sector consultancy work.
The lobbying furore prompted a Westminster sleaze scandal as fresh scrutiny was thrust on MPs’ outside earnings.
Mr Paterson won the North Shropshire seat for the Conservatives at the 2019 general election with a near-23,000 majority.
The constituency has never been held by anyone apart from the Conservatives, with it remarked that it is a seat where they normally “weigh the Tory vote”.
However, the prime minister will be anxious that the circumstances of Mr Paterson’s resignation – as well as recent allegations of COVID lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street – could see the Conservatives struggle to hold on to the constituency.
The Liberal Democrats were this week installed as favourites to win the by-election by some bookmakers, although party sources played down their chances of springing an upset.
Yet Sir Ed Davey’s party will have been buoyed by their historic win at the Chesham and Amersham by-election in June – a seat that had previously been a Conservative stronghold since its creation in 1974.
Following that success, Sir Ed claimed the Tories’ “blue wall” in its traditional heartlands was “beginning to crumble” under Mr Johnson’s leadership.
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Source : skynews
