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Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives have narrowly held on to the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat in an surprising UK parliamentary by-election consequence however have been poised to lose two different seats in an evening of political drama.

Sunak’s ruling occasion retained the London seat vacated by former premier Boris Johnson by fewer than 500 votes, however the consequence, which got here at simply earlier than 3am, eliminated the specter of a “3-0” by-election debacle for the prime minister.

Inside minutes, nonetheless, the Conservatives misplaced the South West seat of Somerton and Frome to the centrist Liberal Democrats, who turned a Tory majority of virtually 20,000 right into a Lib Dem majority of greater than 10,000.

The Tory victory in Uxbridge was attributed to concern over a deliberate extension of the “extremely low emissions zone”, a cost on soiled autos, to outer London boroughs deliberate by the capital’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan.

Steve Tuckwell, the successful Tory candidate, stated: “Sadiq Khan has misplaced Labour this election, and we all know that it was his damaging and expensive ULEZ coverage which misplaced them this election.”

The Conservatives polled 13,965 in opposition to the opposition Labour occasion’s 13,470, a Tory majority of 495. The consequence will likely be an enormous reduction to Sunak, who had been braced to lose three parliamentary by-elections in a single day in what would have been a significant blow for his ruling Conservatives.

Sunak’s occasion is trailing the opposition Labour occasion by 20 factors in opinion polls, and is dogged by excessive inflation, failing public providers and the latest chaos of the Johnson and Liz Truss premierships.

Few anticipated the Tories to carry Uxbridge and South Ruislip. The competition was triggered by the resignation of Johnson after he was discovered to have lied to MPs over events held in Downing Avenue throughout Covid-19 lockdowns.

Labour, which hopes to return to energy at subsequent yr’s election, was upbeat about gaining the Yorkshire seat of Selby and Ainsty from the Tories, who received it in 2019 by a margin of 20,137.

The Lib Dem victory on Friday morning in Somerton and Frome gave Sir Ed Davey’s occasion a significant foothold within the Tory heartlands of the English west nation.

In that Somerset seat the Lib Dems’ Sarah Dyke received 21,187 votes, simply beating the Conservatives’ 10,179. The earlier Tory MP David Warburton had been compelled to give up in a medicine scandal.

A trio of defeats within the by-elections would have been the primary such humiliation for a British prime minister since 1968 when Labour’s Harold Wilson misplaced three contests on a single day.

Regardless of the slim Uxbridge victory, which got here after a recount, some Conservative MPs consider that defeats in Selby and Somerset could be a portent of a calamitous basic election defeat subsequent yr.

Sunak insists he can nonetheless flip issues round and safe a fifth consecutive election win, stopping Labour from gaining energy for the primary time since Gordon Brown was ejected from No 10 Downing Avenue in 2010.

In a message to Tory MPs on Wednesday evening, the prime minister tried to lift his occasion’s morale, pointing to this week’s sharp fall in inflation as an indication {that a} tide of dangerous financial information could also be turning.

Jonathan Gullis, a Tory MP, stated: “He was asking all of us to unite behind him once we come again within the autumn. We have to be one group. A united occasion wins, a divided occasion loses.”

Uxbridge is the type of suburban seat the Conservatives want to carry on to if they’re to retain their grip on energy, however Selby is normally considered a rock-solid rural Tory stronghold.

In the meantime the Liberal Democrats see victory in Somerton and Frome as an indication that they’re making a comeback within the west nation, which is overwhelmingly represented by Tory MPs.

Sunak has vowed to stage an autumn comeback, providing a brand new “long-term imaginative and prescient” for the nation. An autumn monetary assertion and the King’s Speech legislative bundle will likely be essential moments for the prime minister.