蜜芽传媒

It's not been a good night for the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

A solid Tory seat that's been held by the ruling party for nearly 200 years was snatched away in a by-election by the smaller opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, in one of the most dramatic swings seen in recent years. It confirms opinion polls which have shown the prime minister's popularity falling - something that's been attributed largely to public anger over alleged Christmas parties in his official Downing Street office and residence last year - against lockdown rules.

It also comes at the end of a week which saw at least 100 members of his own party breaking ranks and voting against the government's new Covid regulations.

Professor Sir John Curtice is Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University

"The voters of north Shropshire have underlined the message of the polls that indeed there is now quite substantial unhappiness with the Conservatives amongst some of their previous supporters...This was a constituency that voted leave by nearly 60% in 2016. It is leave supporters which provided the bedrock of Boris Johnson's election victory in 2019 and it now looks as though that coalition of voters... is now at risk of unravelling."

(Photo: Helen Morgan speaks after being elected as MP. Credit: AFP)

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