Polls close in double by-election battle for Tory seats

Politics

Polls have closed in two by-elections as the Conservatives attempt to hold on to their seats of Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire.

Voters began casting their ballots at 7am, with polling stations shutting their doors at 10pm, and results are expected in the early hours of Friday morning.

Watch our Sky News by-election special on TV from midnight and follow all the updates online in the Politics Hub.

Read more: Biscuits, buttocks and shock results – why by-elections are rarely boring

While the Staffordshire seat is seen as a two-horse race between the Tories and Labour, the Liberal Democrats are also in the running in the more rural area – though both constituencies have typically been Conservative strongholds.

Tamworth was left vacant after the resignation of Chris Pincher – the former Tory deputy chief whip who was suspended for eight weeks over groping allegations.

He appealed the ruling by the Commons Standards Committee, but it stood by its findings and, as a result, Mr Pincher quit rather than face a recall petition in his constituency.

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The Mid Bedfordshire seat was also left empty due to a resignation, though under very different circumstances.

Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries announced her plan to stand down with “immediate effect” after the exit of her long-time ally Boris Johnson, who was found to have lied to parliament over lockdown-breaking parties – and after she discovered she had not made it into the Lords via his resignation honours list.

However, despite her statement, it took her a further 81 days to officially resign and allow a by-election to go ahead.

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Tamworth has been a Conservative seat since 2010, with the party winning a majority of almost 20,000 at the last election.

Meanwhile, Mid Bedfordshire has been blue since 1931, and had an even larger Tory majority of almost 25,000 back in 2019.

But Labour and the Lib Dems have been throwing themselves into the campaigns – with Labour having taken Tamworth at a by-election previously, in 1996, when the constituency was called South East Staffordshire – and until the results are announced, we won’t know who will take over the seats for the rest of this parliament.

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