Inside Politics: ‘Boris Johnson, the party is over’

Liberal Democrats record stunning by-election win in North Shropshire as PM faces fresh lockdown party claims, writes Matt Mathers

Morgan arrives at Shrewsbury Sports Village, where the count was held, before being announced as winner (PA)

It is shaping up to be a very merry Christmas for the Liberal Democrats. The party has recorded yet another stunning by-election victory – this time with a 6,000 majority in the West Midlands seat of North Shropshire. Although the win was not totally unexpected, its significance can not be underestimated. North Shropshire is a rural, “true blue” seat that has returned a Tory MP for nearly 200 years and the Liberal Democrats overturned a whopping, and seemingly insurmountable 23,000 majority to snatch it. Despite what Tory spinners might say this morning about governing parties and mid-term by-elections, this is a defeat that will send shockwaves – and jitters – through the entire Conservative Party and is one that heaps further pressure on an already embattled Boris Johnson, who wakes up this morning not only to a defeat that will further embolden mutinous MPs thinking about ousting him, but also to fresh reports about lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street, after The Independent exclusively revealed that he joined a bash in the garden of No 10 during lockdown in May last year. Earlier this week week it was said that former prime minister David Cameron echoed the view of some senior Tories by suggesting that it won’t be parties, wallpapergate or even Covid that gets Johnson in the end. Instead, he said, it will be the looming spectre of inflation. But there is one thing many Tory MPs care about more than all of those things: retaining power and their seats. With the party’s poll ratings continuing to slide, could North Shropshire be the first real nail in Johnson’s coffin?

Inside the bubble

Both the Commons and Lords are now in recess for the Christmas holidays. Today will be all about the Lib Dems victory in the North Shropshire by-elections.