The Conservative Party lost two parliamentary seats yesterday

By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight

The Conservative Party lost two parliamentary seats yesterday in by-elections in Tiverton and Honiton, and in Wakefield. The Lib Dems took the Tiverton seat with 52.9% of the vote, an 38% swing which overturned a Tory majority of over 24,000. This is believed to be the largest majority ever overturned in a by-election and marks the third Lib Dem by-election win in a previously safe Tory seat in the past 18 months, after Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire. Richard Foord is now MP for the constituency. Labour took Wakefield with 47.9% of the vote, an 8.1% swing, overturning a 3,000 majority. This is Labour’s first by-election victory since 2012. Simon Lightwood is now the MP for Wakefield and holds a 5,000 majority.
 
Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowdenresigned this morning, saying in his resignation letter to the Prime Minister that “we cannot carry on with business as usual” and “somebody must take responsibility.” Boris Johnson, who is currently in Rwanda, has pledged to listen to voters and to ‘carry on.”
 
700 British Airways workers at Heathrow Airport have voted to go on strike over pay. Unite and GMB union members - who are mostly check-in staff - backed industrial action yesterday. The unions said the action was due to a 10% pay cut imposed during the peak of the pandemic not being reinstated. 500 Unite members recorded a 94.7% vote in favour of industrial action, and 95% of GMB members backed the walkouts. The strike dates will be confirmed in the coming days, but are expected to be at the peak of the summer holiday season.
 
UK retail sales fell in May as households cut back on food shopping as inflation bites into household budgets, the Office for National Statistics said this morning. Overall retail sales fell by 0.5% last month, following a rise of 0.4% in April, a fall that was largely due to lower food store sales. Food sale volumes fell by 1.6% in the month.
 
UK consumer confidence has also fallen to its lowest level ever recorded this month, according to GfK’s consumer confidence barometer. The index decreased by one point to -41 in June, a new record low for the second successive month, Yahoo Finance UK says. This month’s survey - which has been running since 1974 - was conducted among a sample of 2,002 individuals aged over 16, between 1 and 14 June. The four scores on our personal finances and the wider UK economic picture all dropped, while the measure on major purchase intentions was flat.
 
UK consumer spending on credit and debit cards also fell slightly over the past week. Staple spending, social spending, and delayable spending all fell, however, work-related spending (which includes spending on road fuel) increased, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics(ONS).
 
The ONS also said that a fifth of companies reported that their turnover decreased last month compared with April, while 14% reported a rise in turnover. Over a third said that record energy prices had affected production, suppliers or both.
 
A slowdown in new orders for UK manufacturing firms has also been highlighted by new data released this morning by S&P Global. June’s overall composite PMI index, which tracks activity in the economy, was unchanged at 53.1, however, new order growth this month was the weakest since March 2021. The new order index fell to 50.8, showing near-stagnation. Any reading over 50 indicates growth.
 
Scams mentioning one of the big six energy firms have jumped 10% in the first quarter of the year, as fraudsters try to exploit the cost of living crisis. Yahoo Finance UK reports figures from Action Fraud which have been obtained by consumer body Which? and show that in January alone, there was a 27% year on year increase in such scams. Phishing emails were one of the most common. These involve a scammer posing as an energy supplier and emailing the customer inviting them to claim a refund, due to a mistake on their energy bill.
 
Dairy Crest, one of Britain's biggest dairy companies, has been fined over £1.5m after admitting it breached permit conditions to dump illegal amounts of sewage into a Cornish river, killing thousands of fish with a powerful chemical, and devastating the local eco-system. A strong biocide used to clean sewage tanks and pipework was released into the River Inny, which flows into the River Tamar, from Dairy Crest’s Davidstow Creamery in north Cornwall, where its popular cheese Cathedral City is made. Overpowering odours from the "foul discharge" left people living nearby unable to leave their homes, Truro Crown Court heard, and a 5km (three mile) section of the Inny was also left coated in black sludge two years later, Sky News says.
 
Cambridge University is launching a fund to commercialise the ideas and inventions of its academics, with shares now available to private investors for a minimum of £25,000. The Cambridge Enterprise fund will seek to invest in 10 to 15 early-stage science and technology companies and is being launched in association with Parkwalk Advisors. The fund is accessed under the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) which allows investors to receive up to 30% tax relief on their initial net investment, as well as tax-free growth should the investments perform well, or loss relief if they fail.
 
Germany has taken a step closer to gas rationing after a drop in supplies from Russia, the BBC says. The country has triggered the "alarm" stage of an emergency gas plan to deal with shortages, because Russia was using gas "as a weapon" in response to EU sanctions, according to economy minister Robert Habeck. He said that Germans would have to reduce consumption., adding that there would "hopefully never" be a need to ration gas for German industry, but also saying: “I can't rule it out."
 
Toyota is recalling 2,700 of its first mass-produced all-electric vehicles over concerns their wheels may fall off. A spokesperson told the BBC that bolts on the bZ4X's wheels "can loosen to the point where the wheel can detach from the vehicle" after "low-mileage use". The recall comes less than two months after the car was launched in Japan. Car maker Subaru also says that for the same reason it will recall 2,600 electric cars it developed with Toyota.
 
Netflix has announced another round of job cuts.  The streaming giant said a further 300 are to go - roughly 4% of its workforce. It let 150 people go in May. Most of the job losses will be in the US. Netflix reported its first subscriber loss in more than a decade in April.
 
The US is banning the sale of all products sold by Juul, one of the country's top e-cigarette companies. The BBC reports the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) as saying it does not have enough data to be sure that marketing the firm's products was "appropriate for the protection of public health". The FDA has already barred the fruity flavours that helped make Juul a phenomenon among teenagers a few years ago. Juul says it will challenge the move.

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