Britain | Not that by the by

Do by-election results in Britain matter?

Our model suggests they should not be dismissed as aberrations

Mid Bedfordshire By-election Count And Declaration
Image: Getty Images

Political superlatives were being thrown around like confetti on October 20th, after two by-election victories for Labour in safe Tory seats. In Mid Bedfordshire Labour set a new record for overturning the largest absolute majority in a by-election. In Tamworth the party bettered its huge by-election victory in the same town in 1996, just a year before Tony Blair’s landslide general-election win. Is history set to repeat itself?

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Not that by the by”

From the October 28th 2023 edition

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