I knew Labour was going to lose Uxbridge – I was there. They want Boris back

I was in Uxbridge last week and I thought a Labour win improbable, writes Tanya Gold. Why? The locals are still in love with their departed hero and long for him to return

I met no Tory voters in Uxbridge who are pleased that Johnson has left, writes Tanya Gold (PA Wire)

The chair of Uxbridge Labour Party, David Williams, has quit. He left in a small Götterdämmerung of hurt pride and nostalgia after the Tories clung on in Boris Johnson’s old seat. He tweeted that “politics needs to have principles” and Jeremy Corbyn, “gave a huge boost to the Labour Party”. To which I can only say – get a calculator, and a map.

Labour lost by 5,000 votes in 2017, and 7,000 votes in 2019. Labour lost by 495 votes on Thursday because left-leaning Brunel University students were at home, and the Greens neglected to vote tactically – their vote share increased – and returned a Tory to Westminster, instead.

I was in Uxbridge last week and I thought it was unlikely Labour would win, even if the bookies said they would, even if Labour was blamed for Ulez, and even if I met a Conservative activist slinking back to HQ having split his trousers.