By-election losses ‘monumental and humiliating’ for Boris Johnson says Nicola Sturgeon

Losses in two by-elections have been a “monumental, massive, humiliating vote of no confidence” in the Prime Minister, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The Tories lost the Wakefield seat in West Yorkshire to Labour and Tiverton and Honiton in Devon to the Liberal Democrats – the latter by a swing of nearly 30% – on Thursday.

The results come just weeks after a confidence vote saw 148 of Boris Johnson’s MPs back his removal – including four Scottish Conservative MPs.

Following the by-election defeats, Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden quit and opposition parties sought to pile on the pressure.

Losses in two by-elections have been a “monumental, massive, humiliating vote of no confidence” in the Prime Minister, Nicola Sturgeon has said. .

Speaking from the Royal Highland Show on Friday, Scottish First Minister Ms Sturgeon urged Tory MPs to remove the Prime Minister.

“It’s a monumental, massive, humiliating vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson,” she said.

“People could see it coming 100 miles off and it should send a very strong message – if not to Boris Johnson, who is impervious to all of these things given his arrogance, it should send a very strong message to the Conservatives.

“If they keep Boris Johnson, a law breaking Prime Minister who has been seen to not tell the truth, if they keep him in office, then effectively they are all becoming complicit in this.

“If this is not a wake-up call to the Conservative Party, then it will just prove beyond doubt that they don’t have the interests of any part of the UK in mind or at heart.”