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Coffee House Shots

Sunak narrowly avoids triple by-election defeat

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Daily News, Politics

4.42.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There was something for everyone in the by-elections with each of the three big parties getting a seat. The Tories lost Somerton and Frome to the Lib Dems and Selby and Ainsty to Labour but did narrowly cling on in Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, albeit with a reduced majority of just 495 votes.

James Heale unpacks the results with Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls. 

Produced by Oscar Edmondson. 

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:06.1

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0:11.7

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0:15.4

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0:22.7

Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. Joining us today is Fraser Nelson and Katie Pools

0:27.0

to discuss those three by-election results. Katie, it's a bit of a mixed picture.

0:30.9

All three main parties won a seat last night. Tell us about it.

0:34.4

Yes, there's something for everyone. I think the sense this morning that we can debate

0:40.1

really how much. If you're looking at the free by-elections, I think the top line is that

0:45.2

Richesonick has managed to avoid a triple by-election defeat and that is because the Tories have

0:51.2

clung on in Oxbridge. The majority was £7,210. That's now been reduced to just 495 votes,

1:00.0

but it means Labour fell short. I think because expectations were almost so low for the Tories and

1:06.1

it was this sense speaking to both Labour and Tories that the Tories won't cause to lose all three,

1:11.7

there is an upset for Keir Starmer and I'm sure we'll talk later about whether that's

1:15.6

alternative. Ules, what it suggests in terms of transferring to the election,

1:20.0

much less good news was Selby and Aitzi and Subitone and Froome. In Selby, you had the Labour

1:26.8

overturn a majority of £20,137. I think historically that's the largest post-war majority that they

1:33.9

have overturned in a by-election and this was also the seat that initially the Tories were the

1:39.7

most optimistic they could try to hold. I think that optimism quickly faded when MPs went to

1:44.8

the constituency and tried to campaign there because it was seen as a safe seat. They were lacking

1:49.1

quite a lot of data in terms of how to campaign there and you quite quickly got the sense,

1:53.9

which we talked about previous on the focus in Oxbridge, they were getting a much better reception

...

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