In the early stages of the North Shropshire by-election count, senior Liberal Democrats were worried that a better than expected showing by Labour would rob them of a famous victory.
But they needn’t have worried. Six hours later, after the result was declared at 4.20am, the victorious Helen Morgan was thanking Labour supporters for lending her their votes.
It was a stunning and sensational victory. The Lib Dems didn’t just squeeze past the Tories in North Shropshire. They trounced them.
Ms Morgan’s vote of nearly 18,000 not only gave her a majority over the Conservatives of nearly 6,000, but she achieved a 34% swing in the process.
That’s the second biggest Conservative to Liberal or Lib Dem swing since 1945, after Christchurch in 1993, a year when John Major’s government was hit by sleaze scandals.
And while she may have sounded a little nervous as she gave her victory speech – no doubt stunned by the size of her victory – her words were powerful.
She talked about Boris Johnson‘s government “run on lies and bluster” and how Conservative voters were dismayed by his lack of decency.
Clearly the Lib Dems played the sleaze card during the campaign and it worked. Ms Morgan talked also in her speech about the “questionable donations” to refurbish the PM’s Downing Street flat and parties in Number 10 during lockdown.
It’s these attacks that will alarm Conservative MPs and turn up the heat on Boris Johnson at the end of a week when 100 of his backbenchers rebelled against his Plan B COVID curbs.
He should be worried. In that rebellion all six members of the executive of the 1922 Committee voted against the government and 26 of the 2019 intake also defied the Prime Minister.
So the mutiny crosses the generations: grandees – the “men in grey suits”, to use the old political cliche – and new MPs, including several “Red Wallers” who won seats…
Source : skynews
