Ed Davey has pledged to use the Liberal Democrats’ victory in the Somerton and Frome byelection as a springboard to renewed success in the south-west of England, after his party overturned yet another massive Conservative majority with apparent ease. The Lib Dem leader hailed what he called a “spectacular” win as he visited Frome hours after candidate Sarah Dyke took a seat held by the Conservative David Warburton in 2019 with a 19,000-plus majority, with a margin of 11,000. It is the fourth such byelection win for Davey in the last two years, with his party previously having overcome Conservative majorities of between 16,000 and 24,000 in Chesham and Amersham, North Shropshire, and Tiverton and Honiton. In keeping with a tradition begun in Chesham and Amersham, when Davey demolished a mocked-up blue wall, there was another heavily literal photo opportunity, this time involving yellow confetti being fired from a blue mock circus cannon. Standing in front of a wall of Lib Dem placards, Davey held a giant cardboard match to the cannon, emblazoned with the words “Get these clowns out of No. 10!” while behind him an activist used an actual flame to light a fake fuse, ahead of a countdown to the confetti burst.
Addressing the crowd, Davey said his party was “winning again in the old Liberal heartlands of the south-west”, also citing last June’s Tiverton and Honiton win, and victories in recent council elections. Lib Dem strategists argue that with more than a dozen other Tory-held seats in the region more vulnerable than Somerton and Frome, it could be as crucial to the next general election as Scotland. “I’m starting to really like byelections,” Davey told the crowd. “The trend was clear before. Now it’s beyond doubt – the Liberal Democrats are back in the West Country.” He added: “It’s time for a general election to end this Conservative circus and get these clowns out of No 10.” The Lib Dem cause was helped by the protracted and contested manner of Warburton’s departure, with the MP spending 15 months being investigated over claims of drug use, which he admitted, and harassment, which he denied. Nonetheless, the relative scale and ease of the win in a seat held by the Conservatives since 2015 will buoy the Lib Dems, who enjoyed a 29 percentage point swing in their favour. This was despite the Greens, represented by the well-known Frome councillor Martin Dimery, winning more than 10% of the vote. The victory also demonstrated the Lib Dems’ renewed competitiveness in rural seats, as well as so-called “blue wall” commuter belt constituencies around London. Dyke comes from a long-established farming family, and campaigned heavily on farming issues in a seat that is largely rural beyond a handful of towns, including Frome and Bruton. While Lib Dem officials warned repeatedly against complacency and insisted the result was never certain, bookmakers were offering odds as low as 1/100 on Dyke winning, and by the time the voting closed on Thursday night the caution ended. Some Lib Dem sources briefed before the counting had officially begun that the party had “romped home”. Before midnight, Christine Jardine, the Lib Dem MP for Edinburgh West, said: “We are confident we have got a decisive victory tonight”. Davey said on Twitter that a “bigger tractor” may be needed, a reference to an earlier photoshoot stunt. Dyke arrived at the count at the vast Royal Bath and West Showground at 1.30am, where she was granted a rock star’s entrance, walking into the venue to cheers and the waving of party placards.