By-elections: Conservatives lose two seats in vote but hold on to one

The Conservative Party has lost two seats and held on to one after a night of three dramatic by-election results.

The Liberal Democrats won the seat of Somerton and Frome in Somerset in the south of England, while Labour took the seat of Yorkshire seat of Selby and Ainsty - both of which had previously been held by the Conservatives.

The Conservatives managed to hold on to former prime minister Boris Johnson's old seat in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London - but what will worry the party is how many votes they got in comparison to the others.

In Uxbridge the Conservative candidate got far fewer votes than Mr Johnson previously had, only winning by 495 votes over Labour, after a recount.

This wasn't a good result for the Conservative Party, sometimes referred to as the Tories and shows they remain in "electoral trouble" despite their unexpected victory in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, polling expert Sir John Curtice has said.

They are behind Labour in the national polls - and with a general election due to be held next year this isn't the position they would want to be in.

The BBC's Chief political correspondent Nick Eardly said that despite holding on to one seat, "this is still a bad set of results for his (Rishi Sunak's) party".

He said: "Both results paint a bleak picture for the Conservatives nationally. They show that Sunak has been unable to stop the party shedding seats at by-elections. They again illustrate he is struggling to change to electoral weather."

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says his party's win in Uxbridge and South Ruislip shows the next general election is not a "done deal".

The PM added: "Westminster's been acting like the next election is a done deal. The Labour Party has been acting like it's a done deal. The people of Uxbridge just told all of them that it's not."

While both the Lib Dems and Labour also saw a fall in votes in some areas, the Liberal Democrat in Uxbridge and Selby and Labour in Somerton - Mr Curtice said this was due to people voting for whatever party was more likely to defeat the Conservatives locally - "another bad message for the Conservatives".

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer celebrated the results, saying "This is an historic result that shows that people are looking at Labour and seeing a changed party that is focused entirely on the priorities of working people with an ambitious, practical plan to deliver."

But it wasn't all good news for Labour either.

In Uxbridge, a seat that Labour had hoped to win, the Tories managed to take advantage of local anger over the the planned expansion of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (Ulez) to outer London under Labour mayor Sadiq Khan.

Ulez is an area in central London where the most polluting vehicles have to pay a daily charge to drive.

In his victory speech, the new MP for Uxbridge Steve Tuckwell said Mr Khan's "damaging and costly Ulez policy" lost Labour the seat.

Labour's shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds agreed that the Ulez expansion was always going to make it difficult for Labour to take Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

However, he told the BBC the scheme was a "specific issue to that particular part of the United Kingdom" and that, ahead of a general election, Labour would be focusing on the "national story".

For the Liberal Democrtas this is the party's fourth by-election gain since 2019, although this has not translated into major advances in national polls.

Uxbridge and South Ruislip

Conservative Steve Tuckwell managed to secure the victory in a closely fought contest which saw Conservative and Labour votes recounted.

Mr Tuckwell, who opposed the Ulez expansion, made the issue central to his campaign, with activists saying it was raised frequently by voters on the the doorstep.

Labour's Danny Beales, who came second with 13,470 votes compared to Mr Tuckwell's 13,965, had sought to distance himself from the policy, arguing it was not the right time to expand the charge amid a cost-of-living crisis.

However, the Tories highlighted how the expansion of the daily charge for cars which fail to meet emissions standards to outer London was the policy of a Labour mayor.

The by-election was triggered by Mr Johnson's resignation came after an inquiry which found he misled Parliament over lockdown parties at Downing Street.

Somerton and Frome

In Somerton and Frome, Lib Dem Sarah Dyke, a Somerset councillor secured a dramatic victory, winning 21,187 votes.

Her rival the Conservative councillor Faye Purbrick trailed in second with 10,179 votes.

In her victory speech Ms Dyke thanked "lifelong Conservative voters" who had voted Lib Dem for the first time, as well as Labour and Green supporters who had "lent" their votes.

She said the public had been "let down and taken for granted for far too long" by the Conservatives, with the government "too busy being a circus of chaos".

The by-election was triggered by the resignation of former Tory MP David Warburton last month after claims of misconduct.

Mr Warburton, who had held Somerton and Frome since 2015 was suspended from the Conservative parliamentary party last April.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the "stunning victory shows the Liberal Democrats are firmly back in the West Country" and that the country are "fed up with Rishi Sunak's out-of-touch Conservative government".

Selby and Ainsty

New Labour MP Keir Mather, 25, will become the youngest MP in the House of Commons, after he secured 16,456 votes compared to Conservative candidate Clare Holmes's 12,295.

The safe Conservative seat, which is largely rural, had been held by the party since it was created in 2010.

Mr Mather said his party had "rewritten the rules on where Labour can win".

He said voters were "extremely frustrated" at the way the area's previous Tory MP had stood down but that the cost-of-living crisis was the top issue on the doorstep.

The resignation of Boris Johnson's ally Mr Nigel Adams came after he was not included in the former prime minister's honours list - although he has not said this was why he quit.