By-election Blues: PM Rishi Sunak Faces Test of Leadership in UK’s Three Parliamentary Seats

 

Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, is in a thick political situation as he faces a by-election wipeout later this month. This comes after Boris Johnson’s surprise resignation from Parliament. The former prime minister stepped down after the Parliament’s Privileges Committee investigation established that Johnson misled the lawmakers over COVID-19 rule breaches by officials. 

This also brought about the resignation of a key Johnson ally Nadine Dorries, who vacated her Mid Bedfordshire seat, and Nigel Adams, who stepped down as a member of the UK parliament. As such, the ruling Conservatives led by PM Sunak, faces elections in three parliamentary seats. 

The past couple of months haven’t been easy for the prime minister. Britain’s top court rejected the government’s plan to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda as unlawful. It ruled that the African country is not a safe country for migrants seeking asylum. And there is the ongoing NHS strikes and medical professional shortage in the country. While Sunak plans to increase the number of people working for the NHS in England, it is not free of scrutiny. 

There is also the ongoing migration problem. The New Conservatives Group, which consists of Tory MPs elected in 2017 – 2019, wants the Rishi Sunak-led government to deliver the manifesto pledge to reduce net migration by 440,000, down to 220,000 by the next election, in an effort to maintain their voters’ trust and “save face”. 

Sunak was also pulled into the Partygate scandal by the former prime minister, who pointed out that if COVID rules had indeed been broken in Downing Street, Sunak would have been obvious to it. It should be noted that the Metropolitan police had fined Sunak for attending Johnson’s birthday party at No. 10 in June 2021.