Quote:
Originally Posted by Mick
It’s not tactical voting. You have a Tory stronghold of Tory voters staying at home in protest and the Anti-Tory voters turning out in numbers. I don’t see it as that tactical. Just hope the message is isn’t twisted to say people want Lib Dem policies, coz we certainly don’t.
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It's both. The Tory voters did stay home but this is a large majority so to effectively capitalise on that those who just wanted to give the Tories a bloody nose would have to opt for the party that is best placed to defeat them.
Local Election results had suggested this would be the Liberal Democrats as did the nature of the constituency. There was a lot of messaging with the Lib Dem base and the Labour activists nationally - although locally they were upset - that Labour would concentrate on Bexley and the Libs in Shropshire.
Ed Davey didn't go to Bexley and Starmer didn't go to Shropshire. The Liberals didn't send their by-election machine down to Bexley and Labour didn't commit large resources to Shropshire. Although part of this is also down to finances when having to fight two by-elections at the same time.
The Tories will retake it in the next election because it's such a Tory stronghold though