U.K. voters deliver blow to PM, elect pair of Labour lawmakers

LONDON — Beleaguered British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday urged voters, and his restless party, to stick with him after two English districts elected opposition-party lawmakers in seats that Mr. Sunak’s Conservatives had held for years.

The results will worsen fears among Conservatives that, after 14 years in power, the party is heading for a drubbing when a national election is held in less than a year. The Tories consistently lag between 10 and 20 points behind the left-of-center Labour Party in nationwide opinion polls.

Labour candidate Damien Egan won the House of Commons seat of Kingswood in southwest England, and Labour’s Gen Kitchen took Wellingborough in the country’s center, results announced Friday showed. The Conservatives won both by large margins at the last national election in 2019 but saw support collapse in Thursday’s special elections.

Reform U. K. — formerly known as the Brexit Party — came third, leaving the Conservatives facing pressure from the right as well as the left.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the results “show people want change.”

But Mr. Sunak implored voters to “stick with our plan, because it is starting to deliver the change that the country wants and needs.”

“We’ve clearly been through a lot over the past couple of years as a country, but I genuinely believe at the start of this year we’re pointing in the right direction,” he told reporters.

Thursday’s elections replaced one lawmaker who quit to protest Mr. Sunak’s lack of commitment to green energy, and another who was ousted over allegations of bullying and sexual misconduct.

The Conservatives have now lost 10 by-elections since the last general election, more than any administration since the 1960s. That includes six defeats — and one win — since Mr. Sunak took office in October 2022. He replaced Liz Truss, who rocked the economy with a plan for unfunded tax cuts and lasted just seven weeks in office.

Mr. Sunak, the fifth Conservative leader since 2016, has restored a measure of stability, but failed to revive the governing party’s popularity.