There are no “no-go areas” where Labour won’t fight to “win” the upcoming by-elections, one of the party’s shadow ministers has claimed.
Pat McFadden, Labour’s chief secretary to the Treasury, said Labour would contest the three by-elections that have arisen from the resignations of Boris Johnson and his allies Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams.
Mr McFadden said the contests “can be the first step towards removing the government” as he also repeated Sir Keir’s Starmer’s call for a snap general election.
Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme about the Labour leader’s call for a snap election, Mr McFadden said: “I don’t think there’s any cure for this chaos under the current government.
“They are the party of government, and if this goes on, the chaos will continue.
“You’ve got Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of Boris Johnson’s principal allies, writing in one of the Sunday newspapers today that not only should Boris come back, but that he would be a good candidate in a future leadership election.
“So, it is quite clear. This is going to continue in the Conservative Party and they cannot fix it themselves. The only way to fix this is to have a general election and a change of government.”
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Mr McFadden also went on to criticise Mr Johnson for his swipe at the privileges committee – which has been investigating whether he misled MPs with his statements on parties in Downing Street – calling him a “man-baby”.
In his resignation letter, Mr Johnson likened the committee to a “kangaroo court” and claimed a “tiny handful of people” were trying to “drive him out” of parliament.
But the Labour frontbencher pointed out that the committee is made of a majority of Conservative MPs and that its verdict “isn’t the last word”.
“It then goes to parliament, where the Tories are sitting on a majority of around 66 seats – at least it was on Friday before they all started resigning.
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“Even then, it just triggers a recall petition where he could face the voters.
“But the truth is he didn’t want to face any of the verdicts because he can never accept responsibility for his own actions.
“That’s true of all these right-wing populist leaders. They are like baby men. Whenever anything goes wrong, it is everybody else’s fault.”
Rishi Sunak is faced with three by-elections in Mr Johnson’s seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, as well as Mid Bedfordshire and Selby and Ainsty, held by Ms Dorries and Mr Adams, respectively.
Ms Dorries resigned as an MP on Friday with “immediate effect” as it emerged she had been passed over in Mr Johnson’s resignation list.
Hours later Mr Johnson himself quit and was followed by Mr Adams, stoking speculation of protest resignations from the former prime minister’s allies.
The by-election in Mr Johnson’s seat, where he holds a majority of just over 7,000 votes, has been described as an “acid test” for Labour by polling experts.
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Ben Page, the chief executive of Ipsos Mori, told Ridge the contest “ought to be… a breeze for Labour” if Sir Keir is going to win a general election “convincingly”.
“That really is going to be an acid test,” he said.
“If they breeze through that, then all the polls showing an average 16-point lead for Labour, people will bake it in.
“If they don’t, or it’s only very narrow, then I think there will be a lot more uncertainty.”
However, he said Labour and the Liberal Democrats could reach a tactical voting pact in Mid Bedfordshire – where Ms Dorries holds a majority of over 24,000 votes – to give the latter the “best prospect” of winning.
“It does require Labour in that seat to really stand down,” Mr Page said. “That’s probably their best prospect.”
Mr Page cited the Liberal Democrats’ victory over the Tories in Chesham and Amersham in June 2021, where the party achieved a swing of 25.2% while Labour picked up just 622 votes.
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Mr Page was also asked about Mr Johnson’s popularity with the public, to which replied his fan base was “much smaller” than his allies might think.
“Let’s just be frank, two out of three people think he’s lied and misled parliament,” he said.
“When we asked people which prime minister they think did a good job or a bad job, Boris Johnson tops the bad job list by some margin.
“Even among Conservative voters, the dwindling band of Conservative voters, many more say that Sunak would be a better prime minister than Johnson.
“On the basis of that, his time is over in politics for the moment.”
