Helen Morgan elected with 34% swing
Welcome to the newest Liberal Democrat MP:
In 2019, Helen was 29,801 behind the Conservatives; now she’s won by 5,925 – a switch around of 35,726.
This should have been impossible.
It’s way back in 1993 the last time the Liberal Democrats made two Parliamentary gains from the Conservatives in the same calendar year.
It’s even further back in 1981 the last time the Liberal Democrats, or our predecessors, gained a Parliamentary by-election in England from the Conservatives when starting third or worse. And that took the creation of a new party (SDP), one of the UK’s most popular politicians as the candidate (Shirley Williams) and a massive recession.
But Helen, the team and members and supporters from all across the country have done it.
Thank you one and all.
And, as Helen Morgan said in her victory speech, thank you too to the Labour voters who lent their votes to ensure the Conservatives were defeated and that Boris Johnson was sent such a powerful message. There were certainly some in Labour who seemed much happier to see the Conservatives win than the Lib Dems – continuously attacking the Lib Dems during the campaign while hardly having a cross word to say about the Conservatives. But there were many more who took a very different approach.
For some instant analysis of the lessons for the Liberal Democrats from this triumph, and how it happened, watch out for a special episode of the Never Mind The Bar Charts podcast with Tim Bale, being recorded Friday afternoon. Plus an edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire hitting inboxes soon too (sign up here).
Here’s a snippet of what I’ve been telling the media:
Commenting on the result, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP said:
This result is a watershed moment in our politics and offers hope to people around the country that a brighter future is possible. Millions of people are fed up with Boris Johnson and his failure to provide leadership throughout the pandemic and last night the voters of North Shropshire spoke for all of them.
This is the second stunning by-election victory this year for the Liberal Democrats – both in formerly safe Conservative seats. From Buckinghamshire to Shropshire, lifelong Conservatives have turned to the Liberal Democrats in their droves and sent a clear message to the Prime Minister that the party is over.
The Liberal Democrats believe people deserve a fair deal where everyone plays by the same rules – including those in Downing Street. We will fight for that fair deal with good schools, safe streets and high-quality healthcare.
PS Three council by-election gains from the Conservatives too.
UPDATE: Helen Morgan has now given her maiden speech in Parliament.
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Note the turn-out and how many previously Tory voters obviously didn’t vote. Defending it successfully will depend largely on the new MP and her team convincing those people that they really are better off with Helen than they ever were with Patterson and either staying away again or actually coming over and voting for us. The same applies in Chesham & Amersham.
Helen’s win in North Shropshire shows that throughout the country more people are voting for Lib Dem, Labour and Green Candidates than for the Tories. The only thing that seems to be the Tories trump card is the “First Past the Post” voting system. Is it time for the leaders of the 3 parties to get together in confidential negotiations to agree on some sort of electoral pact to rid ourselves of Boris and Co. If we continue with tribalism then we are doomed to wander in the wilderness as the Tories will never agree to any form of proportional representation while they are guaranteed to win a majority of seats under FPTP. It is important to remember that the only purpose of politics is to gain power and that we can only do that in partnership with Labour and the Green’s.
The pl;ural of Green is Greens, NOT Green’s.
Is there any info on how many voters switched from Labour and how many from the tories?
How much was due to tactical voting and how much to tory voters abstaining?