Danny Lawson/PA
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is on course for a fierce battle with Labour in a new year by-election after MP Peter Bone’s voters backed a recall petition to oust him from the Commons.
North Northamptonshire Council confirmed on Tuesday that 13.2% of the electorate in Wellingborough backed a petition to recall their Westminster representative, passing the 10% threshold required for a by-election contest.
The petition had been prompted when Mr Bone was handed a six-week suspension from the House of Commons after an inquiry found he had subjected a staff member to bullying and sexual misconduct.
He has been sitting as an independent after losing the Conservative whip in the aftermath of the ruling.
Labour said voters in his Northamptonshire constituency had the “opportunity to vote for a fresh start” as Sir Keir Starmer’s party, which is riding high in opinion polls, eyes up another Conservative scalp.
Wellingborough has been held by Mr Sunak’s Tory Party since 2005 after Mr Bone took it from Labour during Sir Tony Blair’s final election as prime minister.
During Boris Johnson’s landslide general election victory in 2019, the Tories held it with a strong 18,540 majority, with Labour coming a distant second.
But that lead could be under threat in the current political climate, with it being smaller than the blue majorities overturned by Sir Keir’s outfit in by-elections held in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire in October.
Gen Kitchen, Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Wellingborough, said the recall petition outcome showed that constituents “want change”.
“As the UK Labour candidate for Wellingborough and Rushden, I will work hard to be the fresh start that people want. Looking forward to a by-election in the new year,” she tweeted.
Labour chair Anneliese Dodds said: “The Conservative Party has presided over 13 years of failure, not least in the ‘professionalism, integrity and accountability at all levels’ that Rishi Sunak promised.
“Despite serious allegations made against him, Peter Bone has dragged his constituents through a lengthy recall petition rather than doing the right thing and offering his resignation
“The people of Wellingborough now have the opportunity to vote for a fresh start with Gen Kitchen and the Labour Party.”
The result of the by-election will be seen as an early indicator of where the Tories, the governing party in Westminster, stand with the public ahead of a general election.
Mr Sunak is widely expected to announce that the country will go to the polls in 2024, with a date still to be confirmed.
At the conclusion of the six-week long Wellingborough recall process, North Northamptonshire Council said 10,505 people agreed that Mr Bone should lose his job as their MP.
The by-election threshold had been set at 7,904 people — a tenth of the 79,046 eligible voters in his constituency.
A date for the by-election has not been set but rules around parliamentary procedure mean it will not take place before February.
Campaigning by political parties is expected to start long before any date for the contest is confirmed.
In a statement published on social media, Mr Bone said having a by-election seemed “bizarre as 86.8 per cent of the electorate did not want to remove me from office, nor for there to be a by-election”.
He was even community noted on X (formerly Twitter) for his efforts.
The veteran politician, who has been spotted in Westminster in recent days, said the allegations against him were “totally untrue and without foundation”.
Mr Bone was found to have “committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct” against a staff member in 2012 and 2013.
Parliament’s behaviour watchdog, the Independent Expert Panel, upheld an earlier investigation that found he broke the MPs’ code of conduct on four counts of bullying and one of sexual misconduct.
The panel found that he had indecently exposed himself to the complainant in the bathroom of a hotel room during a work trip to Madrid.
Mr Bone has repeatedly denied the allegations and said in his statement on Tuesday that he would “have more to say on these matters in the new year”.
The former minister was kicked out of the Tory parliamentary party a day after the report was published on October 16.
Related: Gove hopes criminal case will be brought against Mone in PPE scandal
