Labour has dealt a double by-election blow to Rishi Sunak by overturning huge Tory majorities in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire.
Sir Keir Starmer claimed Labour was “redrawing the political map” by taking seats which had been comfortably Conservative ahead of the general election expected next year.
In Tamworth, Labour’s Sarah Edwards defeated Tory Andrew Cooper by a majority of 1,316.
The Conservatives were defending a 19,634 majority, but a 23.9 percentage point swing to Labour saw that eradicated.
The result, announced shortly at 2.45am, was the second-highest ever by-election swing to Labour.
Just half-an-hour later, there was even better news for Sir Keir as Mid Bedfordshire saw the largest majority overturned by Labour at a by-election since 1945.
Taking to social media, Carol Vorderman said Tory MPs sitting on up to a 15,000 vote majority will now “be very worried”.
And judging by this Election Maps, you can see why!
It finds that if the results of Tamworth and Mid-Bedfordshire were replicated nationally, the Tories would be left with just 20 seats at the next election, making them the UK’s fourth-largest party.
Although the map is a “only for fun” version of what could happen, Lewis Goodall says it has been clear for a while that Westminster has been “underpricing” the possibility of a Conservative wipe-out and a Labour wave.
“Too many looked at Uxbridge, not Selby”, he said:
Related: Andrew Cooper escapes through side door following historic by-election defeat