Mid Bedfordshire by-election Tory Festus Akinbusoye 'not the issue'

A Conservative by-election candidate has said he was "not the issue" that lost the party a parliamentary seat it had held since 1931.

Labour won last week's Mid Bedfordshire vote, which was triggered by the resignation of former Conservative cabinet minister and MP Nadine Dorries.

Alistair Strathern won the seat with a 1,192-vote majority, overturning Ms Dorries's 2019 total of 24,664.

Tory Festus Akinbusoye said he was "respected" on the campaign trail.

Mr Akinbusoye polled 12,680 votes, with Liberal Democrat Emma Holland-Lindsay in third place with 9,420.

The result was the largest Conservative majority overturned by Labour at a by-election since 1945.

Mr Akinbusoye, Bedfordshire's police and crime commissioner, said: "What I think was very clear - and I got this from the doorsteps quite a lot - was that people knew who I was.

"They respected my track record as police and crime commissioner, and a lot of the work I've done around supporting police officers and my track record around the local area. So that was not the issue."

He said: "Other local factors such as the nature of the exit of our previous member of parliament [Ms Dorries] has now led to us now having a new Labour MP for Mid Beds."

Voter turnout for the by-election was 44%, down from 74% at the last general election in 2019.

Mr Strathern is due to be sworn in as an MP later on Monday.

Labour also won last Thursday's other by-election in Tamworth in Staffordshire.

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