The Liberal Democrats have overturned a Tory majority of more than 19,000 to win the Somerton and Frome by-election.
Sarah Dyke won the Somerset seat by 11,008 in a dramatic 29.0 percentage point swing away from Rishi Sunak’s party.
But the Tory leader was spared the prospect of being the first prime minister since 1968 to lose three by-elections on the same day as Labour failed to secure victory in Boris Johnson’s former seat.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party had hoped to take Uxbridge and South Ruislip, which the former prime minister held with a majority of 7,210 in 2019, but Tory Steve Tuckwell managed to retain it with a majority of just 495.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the Somerton and Frome result showed his party was once again winning votes in its former West Country heartland.
“The people of Somerton and Frome have spoken for the rest of the country who are fed up with Rishi Sunak’s out-of-touch Conservative government,” he said.
The victory means Sir Ed has become the first party leader since Paddy Ashdown in the 1990s to win four by-elections.
