By-elections special: Tories face double blow, but avoid 3-0 drubbing
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2023
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Conservatives faced a rout in both Selby and Somerton, but is their narrow win in Uxbridge enough to lift the party’s mood? Lucy Fisher is joined by the FT’s political editor George Parker and columnists Miranda Green and Stephen Bush to fillet the results of this week’s hat trick of by-elections. Plus, since it’s the end of term, the panel offers its political report cards.
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UK Conservatives lose two seats after big by-election swings to Labour and Lib Dems
Tories look for lessons from parliamentary by-election losses
Relying on wedge issues like Ulez won’t save Tories from wipeout
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Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Philippa Goodrich. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Original music and sound engineering by Breen Turner. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:34.0 | The overarching mood is one of growing despair and one of foreboding on the |
| 0:39.1 | Tory benches that this just isn't going to be enough to shift things. |
| 0:45.3 | Welcome to Political Fix, your essential insider guide to Westminster from the |
| 0:49.2 | Financial Times with me, Lucy Fisher. |
| 0:52.1 | You heard their George Parker, more from him later. |
| 0:56.1 | Coming up, good things come in threes, at least for political geeks who love nothing |
| 1:00.8 | more than a good bi-lection. |
| 1:02.6 | But the hat trick of polls this Thursday proved a tougher affair for the conservatives |
| 1:07.1 | who suffered crushing defeats in Selby and Summerton but managed to avoid an all-out |
| 1:11.6 | three-neil-dropping by clinging on to Uxbridge. |
| 1:14.9 | Here to dissect those results and pour over where they leave the main parties as weary MPs |
| 1:19.9 | stagger off for their summer holidays, I'm joined by three top FT colleagues. |
| 1:24.7 | We've got political editor George Parker. |
| 1:26.6 | Hi, George. |
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