correspondent alex forsyth on a night of by election drama. i hereby declare that kier mather is duly elected. cheering the jubilation was obvious. in the early hours of this morning, this was the moment labour overturned a conservative majority of more than 20,000 to win in selby and ainsty, something the party has never done before. the people of selby and ainsty have sent a clear message. for too long, conservatives up here and in westminster have failed us. and, today, that changes. it s time for a fresh start. earlier, the lib dems were celebrating in somerton and frome. another huge victory for them in a seat that had been conservative. their candidate saying it showed her party was back in the west country. lifelong conservative voters have today voted liberal democrat for the first time. thank you for putting your trust
have no more own goals. we had a disastrous year for the conservative seven last year. no more scandals. what you re seeing with the prime minister is very much the government using thoughtful process and avoiding the personalities and internal strife and politics. there is only so much of that that he can really control. some would say that the damage is long done. i think, that approach, even, the damage is long done. i think, thatapproach, even, it the damage is long done. i think, that approach, even, it is frustrating mps. they want to see a bit more efficient, notjust winning here and there is of singular local issues, but what people are going to be voting for, what with the conservative manifesto be offering going forward? when you have such a divided party, not all of them who support the current prime minister. that is quite a complicated situation to resolve. i was reading some analyst suggestions that among backbenchers there is a sense of malaise and wariness. i thought it
hello and welcome to westminster where the conservative party has two fewer mps today. that s after the tories suffered two by election defeats losing safe seats to labour and the liberal democrats. labour overturned a majority of more than 20,000 votes in the north yorkshire seat of selby and ainsty. the lib dems won somerton and frome in somerset, overturning a 19,000 vote majority. their leader says that a powerful message had been sent to the conservative party. but the tories held on to borisjohnson s former constituency of uxbridge and south ruislip in west london winning by just a95 votes. we ll be live in each of those constituencies in a moment but first here s our political
listen to the electorate. it is a very specific local issue, isn t it? it is indeed. it has been causing controversy. there has been a lot of protesting in and around london regarding the ultra low emission zone. labour s siddique khan would say that the point of it is to try affect air quality for the poorest, those who can t afford to not live on a main road, not to use public transport. in effect, it is costing people a lot of money. the charge is over £10 per day if your vehicle does not meet a certain emission standard. if it does, you will be fined. a lot of people are finding, we are being told, in this area, a lot of people are trying to find money to change their vehicles. we had one woman tell us that her son had one woman tell us that her son had to spend £23,000 to change his work vanjust in
had to spend £23,000 to change his work van just in order to avoid the ulez payment. that is still a huge chunk of money, he has now got himself into debt as a result of just trying to get to work. that is what is angering people. we have spoken to people who don t normally vote conservative in this area, and they say that, simply because of the ultra low emission zone payment, they decided to vote for steve tuckwell because it is something they really don t want in this area. how much you think mixed messaging may have been an issue here? in that, the labour candidate came out against the expansion of the ultra low emission zone in direct contrast to sadiq khan, who is pushing it forward, and then labour party leader keir starmer decides to sit on the fence. the leader keir starmer decides to sit on the fence- leader keir starmer decides to sit on the fence. , ,., , on the fence. the mixed messaging is an issue for on the fence. the mixed messaging is an issue for all on the fen