Plus: I’ll admit that I didn’t see the Lib Dem victory coming. And: So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye.
If we don’t learn lessons, then the Party runs a real risk of repeating this result at the next general election more widely.
These would allow individual streets, when a large majority of homeowners agree, to give themselves permission to increase the size of their houses.
Sooner or later this problem is going to hit the Tories – hard – due to the demographics the party needs to attract at the next election.
Annual net migration currently suggests 55,000 more homes a year since the 2014 projections – more than the entire rise planned after the housing row.
In the aftermath of the by-election, ConHome republishes Henry Hill’s post-May analysis of the threat to the Conservatives in the South.
On the old electoral map, equally-sized seats was an unambiguous win for the Conservatives. But 2019 changes the calculation.
Plus: Batley & Spen is no Hartlepool. LibDems eye Chesham & Amersham. And: will the West Ham variant hit Europe?
He was running against Olivia Seccombe, from the National Farmers’ Union, and Nikki da Costa, Downing Street’s Director of Legislative Affairs.
The former Cabinet Minister and ’22 Executive Vice-Chairman leaves a majority of 16,223 in Chesham & Amersham.
While UKIP and Reform UK no longer present a credible threat to the Tories, the Lib Dems and Greens are building momentum.