From Triumph to Turmoil: How the Conservatives Lost
The Tory heartland is under siege and Sir Ed Davey (leader of the Liberal Democrats) is the one attacking
I was in the Somerton and Frome parliamentary district ahead of the by-election triggered by the resignation of the former Tory MP (member of parlimant) David Warburton. The results of the election were astonishing with the Conservatives losing to now MP Sarah Dyke by 10 448 votes with the Liberal Democrats gaining 28.4% of the electorate, overturning a 19 213 Conservative majority. This is a political earthquake for the Tories, with their heartland now under siege by the Liberal Democrats. Proving that no safe seat is safe any longer with many previous by-elections also showing astounding victories and gigantic majorities overturned.
The shift of popular opinion is one to do with the Conservatives and their major scandals of late. With the former health secretary Matt Hancock breaking covid rules and cheating on his wife, former prime minister Boris Johnson also breaking covid rules that he created, multiple misconduct scandals, and many more. In addition to that the former prime minister Liz Truss and her slogan “in Liz we truss” will go down in history as one of the most catastrophic tenures throughout time, seeing the pound plummet to record lows. Alongside this, the chaotic transfer of power to now prime minister Rishi Sunak whose seen the scandals continue as the Tory infighting and unprofessionalism leak out to the news, some times they don’t even leak a story, just straight up criticize someone or something. then we’ve got Bregret or the regret of Brexit with a majority of Brits now saying that they’d prefer to stay in the European Union. I’ve attempted to mention as many of the problems ravaging the Conservative party currently and what has led to this point, however, without a doubt there are many other scandals and reasons I’ve forgotten to mention or simply didn’t know about.
Sitting in the car looking out the window as we drove past many, many houses with signs saying Liberal Democrats winning here, I felt as if this district had changed. The Tory safe seat with a majority of nearly 20 000 wasn’t here anymore. Rather a community wanting better, deserving better.
However, when I asked the people of Somerton and Frome what they thought of politics in general most would answer “I’m fed up” or “They don’t work for us anymore." Even speaking about the Liberal Democrats, a party that hasn’t been embroiled in political scandals, most would respond that they didn’t think things were going to get better for them. But even then many were still planning to vote, saying the alternative of not voting wasn’t right and that they needed to show that politicians can’t take them for granted anymore.
It’s quite simple why the Conservatives lose, the voters don’t trust them, believe them, or think they are trying to do what is best for the country. However, the same could be said for the Liberal Democrats or Labour. The idea of a politician not being a trustworthy person transcends parties and if Keir Stamer (the leader of the main opposition party Labour and the one set to replace Rishi Sunak) wants the people to believe in Britain, he will have to make them believe in him first.
