North Shropshire should show that opposition parties don’t have to enter formal pacts for their supporters to opt for the candidate best placed to dislodge the Tories
Incompetence, dishonesty and sleaze has seen Boris Johnson’s polling suffer. His Conservative party appears to be losing ground to the Liberal Democrats in North Shropshire, where a byelection will be held next week. There’s a suggestion that some Tory voters view Sir Ed Davey’s party as a refuge from the bungling chauvinism of the Johnson government. This was certainly the case when in June the Lib Dems won a stunning Buckinghamshire byelection. But losing a leave-voting rural constituency would be a bigger earthquake and send shock waves through the Conservative party. Even if the Lib Dems came close, the result would send a shiver up the spine of Tory MPs. That is why North Shropshire’s Labour voters ought to set aside their tribal loyalty and back the Lib Dem candidate.
Mr Johnson’s contemptuous attitude to accountability needs to be checked. A loss in North Shropshire would stop the government in its tracks. Mr Johnson’s disgracefully cavalier attitude to Commons rules is the reason there is a byelection taking place at all. If the prime minister had not attempted to tear up the system of parliamentary oversight to prevent the suspension of his friend Owen Paterson, North Shropshire’s then MP, the party would not be in this fight. A byelection defeat next week would probably have a dramatic effect on government policies – the last one led to a rethink on Tory planning proposals.
