The Conservative Party could be on the receiving end of the worst by-election defeat in its history in Nadine Dorries’ seat, new polling suggests.
The former culture secretary announced that she planned to trigger a by-election in her seat on June 9th but says she will not formally step down as an MP until she gets answers from Downing Street about the decision to deny her a peerage.
Downing Street has expressed bewilderment at her delay in officially quitting, following her announcement that she would depart her Mid Bedfordshire seat “with immediate effect”.
She set out her position in a series of tweets below:
Now polling by Opinium, seen by The Daily Telegraph, shows that Labour would overturn her 24,664 majority in a seat that has been held by the Tories since 1931.
It is one of three difficult by-elections on July 20th. Labour hopes to take Boris Johnson’s seat of Uxbridge & South Ruislip while the Lib Dems hope to win Somerton & Frome, which they held before 2015.
The best hope for the Tories holding on is in Selby & Ainsty, following the resignation of Nigel Adams, but party managers are braced to possibly lose all three.
Last year the Tories lost Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield to the Lib Dems and Labour respectively.