Boris’s blue wall wobble
THE Conservatives suffered a historic by-election defeat yesterday after losing a leafy Buckinghamshire seat for the first time.
Boris Johnson was urged not to forget his core voters in the Home Counties following the shock result in Chesham and Amersham.
The Prime Minister admitted that the result was ‘disappointing’ after the Liberal Democrats managed to overturn a 16,000 Conservative majority.
Sarah Green romped home with a majority of more than 8,000 even though the seat has only ever had Tory MPs since it was created in 1974.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said his party’s victory would ‘send a shockwave through British politics’ and claimed the result demonstrated that the ‘blue wall’ of Tory southern seats could be vulnerable.
Tory MPs have warned the PM that in his desire to retain ‘red wall’ seats in England’s North, he must not forget the party’s traditional voters in the South.
Former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said many in the South were angry about Mr Johnson’s planning reforms, which they fear will lead to the wrong buildings in the wrong places.
‘That is a theme that is running through a lot of constituencies right now – particularly in the South and in London,’ he said.
‘I urge the Government to think carefully about the next stage of this. We need to hold these seats as much as we need to win seats elsewhere.’
Mr Johnson thanked defeated Tory candidate Peter Fleet and said there were ‘particular circumstances’ at play after his party lost one of its safest seats in England.
Many voters in Chesham and Amersham were angry at the HS2 project, which runs through the constituency.
Asked if he was neglecting voters in the South in favour of those in the North, the Mr Johnson said: ‘It was certainly a disappointing result. There were particular circumstances there and we are getting on with delivering our agenda for the whole country – that’s what one-nation Conservatism is all about.’
The by-election was triggered by the death of former Cabinet minister Dame Cheryl Gillan, who took the seat with a majority of 16,233 in the 2019 general election, some 55 per cent of the vote. Miss
Green took 56.7 per cent of the vote to secure a majority of 8,028 over the second-placed Tories.
Sir Ed told BBC Breakfast yesterday: ‘This will send a shockwave through British politics.
‘Liberal Democrats have had good wins in the past, but this is our best-ever by-election victory, and if it was repeated across the South, literally dozens of Conservative seats would fall to the Liberal Democrats. People talked about the “red wall” in the North, but forgot about the “blue wall” in the South and that’s going to come tumbling down if this result is mimicked across this country.’
The Green Party came third in the by-election with 1,480 votes, with Labour fourth with just 622 votes, losing the party’s deposit.
Polling expert Sir John Curtice told Radio 4’s Today programme he made it the ‘worst Labour performance in any by-election’. It took just 1.6 per cent of the vote.
In her acceptance speech, Miss Green said: ‘The voice of Chesham and Amersham is unmistakable. Together we have said: “Enough is enough, we will be heard and this Government will listen.”’
The country’s newest MP and her party’s leader celebrated at a victory rally in the constituency, where the pair stood at a blue wall of plastic bricks which Sir Ed smashed with an orange hammer.
‘This will send a shockwave’