Can Labour win another two by-elections?

Sleaze means we could soon have two more polls, on top of the 19 others held since 2019, as Sean O’Grady explains

Blackpool South MP Scott Benton could delay a by-election if he decides to appeal a decision by the standards committee (PA)

Calls from opposition parties for a general election are louder than ever, if made more in hope than expectation. In a sense, a slow-motion general election has been progressing for some time now, such has been the frequency of by-elections.

There have so far been 19 since the general election of December 2019 – an unusually high incidence. Of those, 10 have been held in Conservative seats, with Labour gaining four, the Liberal Democrats three and the Tories holding three (one of which, in Southend West, went uncontested following the murder of David Amess.) There may soon be two more, one in Blackpool South, and another in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. Both are Conservative-held and winnable for Labour on current trends.

What is causing these by-elections?