UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s conservatives lost a parliamentary seat the party had dominated for nearly 200 years on Friday in a vote that showed public disenchantment with a string of scandals and heightened pressure from rebel lawmakers .
The defeat was described by the Conservative Party as “a kick,” embodying fears of some that their reputations and electoral prospects are now harmed by Johnson.
Center Liberal Democrat candidate Helen Morgan won the North Shropshire seat with nearly 6,000 votes ahead, reversing a conservative majority of 23,000 votes in the 2019 election.
“Tonight, the people of North Shropshire spoke on behalf of the British people. He said loud and clear ‘Boris Johnson, the party is over,’” Morgan said in his winning speech.
“Your government based on lies and bravado will be held accountable. It will be searched, it will be contested and it can and it will be defeated.”
Conservatives had won every previous election in the essentially rural area of central England since the electoral zone was created in its current form in 1983. Conservative parliamentarians have dominated the region for nearly two centuries.
The sharp turn comes as Johnson, a 57-year-old former journalist who won a broad majority in a 2019 election with a pledge to “make Brexit a reality,” faces criticism from multiple fronts, including over reports that his team held parties last Christmas, when the country was at a lockdown to stem the spread of Covid-19.
“The North Shropshire voters were exhausted and they gave us a kick, I think they wanted to send a message,” Conservative President Oliver Dowden told Sky News. “We heard it loud and clear.”
But Dowden said Johnson is still an asset to the party and will lead the party in the next election, scheduled for 2024.
Opinion polls show conservatives lagging behind their main rivals, the Labor Party, in the wake of riots over second jobs for MPs, criticism of the way Johnson financed his sumptuous apartment renovation and a spike in Covid-19 cases.
“This has to be seen as a referendum on the prime minister’s performance,” longtime Johnson critic Roger Gale told the BBC network. “The Conservative Party has a reputation for taking no prisoners. If the prime minister fails, the prime minister leaves.”
Reference: CNN Brasil
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