In this issue

June 25, 2022

How the Tory plot to topple Johnson could play out

A week ago ministerial allies of Boris Johnson were insisting that losses in the Tiverton and Wakefield by-elections were already “priced in”. The results would not matter, they insisted, because no one expected them to win. It did not quite work out that way.

2 mins

Dowden ‘distressed and disappointed’ by results

Boris Johnson was dealt a second body blow within hours of his crushing by-election defeats in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton, as close ally Oliver Dowden quit as Conservative chair.

3 mins

Will tactical voting defeat Tories in a general election?

The Conservative Party is suffering another bout of jitters after two crushing by-election defeats in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield. The main reason Tory MPs are fretting is that the tactical voting by Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green supporters in both seats makes it hard to dismiss the results as a typical outbreak of midterm blues.

2 mins

The resignation of Dowden is the real bad news for PM

The resignation of Oliver Dowden as Conservative Party chair is more significant than the party's double defeat in Thursday's byelections in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield. It matters because someone in the cabinet has finally had the courage to stand up to Boris Johnson.

3 mins

Wakefield win doesn't mean Starmer is bound for No 10

To be brutal, Labour's win in the Wakefield by-election was not good enough to put Keir Starmer on course to win the next general election. And the Liberal Democrat victory in Tiverton and Honiton hardly matters at all.

3 mins

This isn’t a victory for life – it spells death for women

We saw it coming at us like a 10-tonne truck but, if anyone needed confirmation, here it is: the bodily autonomy of women is under a deadly assault. Think that's hyperbole? Think again.

3 mins

Norfolk farm sealed off as foot and mouth case feared

A suspected case of foot and mouth disease has been identified prompting enforcement of a controlled zone on a Norfolk farm, the government has confirmed.

1 min

Covid infections surge by 300,000 in a single week

Covid infections grew by 300,000 in the last week - a 23 per cent increase as 1.7 million were estimated to have had the virus.

2 mins

Read all stories from The Independent

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