Bromley Blow for Cameron and Tories

8.27.33pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 23rd Jul 2006

Voters turned their backs on David Cameron's strange new brand of conservatism

Seats like Central Suffolk & North Ipswich will fall to the Liberal Democrats if the Bromley & Chislehurst by-election result is repeated here.

June 29th's result in the ultra-Tory Bromley & Chislehurst constituency saw the Conservative majority collapse from over 13,000 to just 633 votes as electors turned their backs on David Cameron's party. It was also terrible news for Labour: Tony Blair's party fell from second to fourth place, and in by-elections in Wales failed to win back former Labour strongholds.

Parliamentary spokesman Andrew Houseley has analysed the result and compared it with the state of the parties here in CSNI. The swing from the Conservatives to the Lib Dems, if repeated uniformly across the country at a general election would mean the Lib Dems gaining CSNI, Suffolk Coastal, and South Suffolk from the Tories, and the swing from Labour would mean capturing Ipswich and Waveney.

"The Liberal Democrats are in a significantly better position in Central Suffolk & North Ipswich, than the last general election result we started with in Bromley & Chislehurst. We were the only major party to gain in support at last year's general election.

"Earlier this year the Liberal Democrats took the safe Labour seat of Dunfermline West. Now we've come within a whisker of beating the Tories. It's clear that voters are increasingly looking to the Lib Dems."

Andrew was a key member of the by-election team in Bromley. "I was very keen to go and help because I realised how significant a test this would be for David Cameron's Tory leadership and the effect that a bad result for them would have on our chances here in Suffolk," he said.

"Ben Abbotts was an excellent candidate for Bromley & Chislehurst, a real local champion, and he was supported by the most formidable campaign team in British politics. Any future by-election in a Conservative seat will result in victory for the Liberal Democrats, a party that is fair-minded, hard-working and determined to improve the quality of life for local people."