Britain’s governing Conservative Party has lost two of its safest parliamentary seats in a significant and ominous setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who must call a general election that will decide his fate within the next 15 months.

Voting in the Conservative strongholds of Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth took place Thursday to replace two of the party’s lawmakers and came as Britain’s health care system faces acute strain and its economy stagnates amid high inflation.

While that was always likely to put the Conservatives under pressure, the double defeat in the party’s heartlands, announced on Friday, was a stunning blow to Sunak and a striking success for the Opposition Labour Party and its leader Keir Starmer.

In Tamworth, northeast of Birmingham, Labour overturned a majority of almost 20,000 in the last general election to win narrowly, while in Mid Bedfordshire, around 80km north of London, Labour overcame an even bigger deficit to seize the seat. Starmer described the vote as “a phenomenal result that shows Labour is back in the service of working people.”

New York Times News Service