Conservatives Suffer Setback in Parliamentary Elections in Britain

Britain’s governing Conservative Party has suffered crushing defeats in two parliamentary elections in a new blow to its embattled leader, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose future has been questioned by critics within his fractious political party.

Election results announced early Friday showed the Conservatives had lost seats they had held in Kingswood, near Bristol, and in Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire — a district that had been regarded as one of the party’s more impregnable strongholds. Votes had been cast on Thursday to replace two Conservative lawmakers who had quit Parliament.

With a general election expected later this year, the defeats are likely to compound Mr. Sunak’s difficulties at a time when the British economy is shrinking, interest rates are high and Britain’s health service seems to be in a state of almost permanent crisis. Opinion polls show his party trailing the opposition Labour Party by double-digit margins.

The first result, announced around 2 a.m., came from Kingswood, where Labour defeated the Conservatives by 11,176 votes to 8,675. In Wellingborough, Labour performed even better by securing a seat that, in the last general election, the Conservatives won by more than 18,000 votes. This time, Labour claimed victory by 13,844 votes to 7,408.

John Curtice, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, described the Wellingborough vote as a “terrible result for the Conservatives.” He called it the party’s biggest loss of support in a comparable election in recent times, adding that it would provide “an awful lot for Mr. Sunak to think about.”

Reform U.K., a small right-wing party, performed better than expected, finishing third in both elections and capturing 13 percent of the vote in Wellingborough, a result that is likely to alarm some Conservative lawmakers. Turnout for both contests was low, at less than 40 percent.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.