Following his party’s shocking defeats in two U.K. parliamentary by-elections, Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden resigned, adding pressure to Boris Johnson’s already frail leadership.
Oliver Dowden resigns after by-election defeat
With a 12.7 percentage point swing, Labour was able to retake the West Yorkshire constituency of Wakefield in northern England.
There, candidate Simon Lightwood received 48 percent of the vote. With candidate Richard Foord winning the Devon seat of Tiverton and Honiton in southwest England with a 30% swing, the Liberal Democrats defeated the Tories for the third time in a year.
“Yesterday’s parliamentary by-elections are the latest in a run of very poor result for our party,” Dowden wrote in an open letter to the U.K. prime minister.
“Our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings,” he told Johnson.
Only a little more than two weeks have passed since Johnson narrowly avoided being ousted as leader of the UK’s ruling party after four out of ten of his MPs cast a vote against it.