Biggest swing in almost three decades

THE Liberal Democrats achieved the biggest byelection swing against a government in 28 years.

The 34.1 per cent swing from the Tories to the Lib Dems in North Shropshire gave newly-elected Helen Morgan a majority of nearly ,000.

The only time this has been beaten in recent years was at the Christchurch by-election in July 1993. Following the death of the sitting Conservative MP, Liberal Democrat candidate Diana Maddock

turned a Tory majority of more than 23,000 into a Lib Dem majority of over 1 ,000. The Tories regained the seat at the 1997 general election.

The historic record does not include by-elections where the same person retained their seat as a member of a different party. For example, sitting Tory MP Douglas Carswell defected to Ukip for the Clacton by-election in 2014 and won with a swing of 44 per cent.