Johnson triumph as Labour loses Hartlepool

Do morals no longer matter in politics? As the Conservatives celebrate victory today, many wonder how a politician so mired in scandal as Boris Johnson can keep winning elections. The tension was rising at Hartlepool leisure centre. Throughout the night, officials spent hours painstakingly counting every vote cast in the by-election. There was only one question on everybody’s minds: who would be the north-eastern town’s new representative in Parliament? Finally, just after 7am, the results were in. The Conservatives had triumphed, winning Hartlepool for the first time since the constituency was created in 1974 with a huge majority of nearly 7,000. For Yorkshire farmer and new Tory Member of Parliament Jill Mortimer, it was a stunning achievement. Meanwhile, for opposition leader Keir Starmer, this morning’s defeat is a shattering blow. Labour has lost the last four general elections. Now, they have lost yet another crucial seat to the governing party – an event so rare in by-elections it has only happened twice before in the last 40 years. The fact that the seat in question is Hartlepool, one of the last remaining bastions of Labour’s Red Wall, makes the defeat even more damaging for Starmer. Many will ask today whether Labour is on its last legs. But it is not only Labour activists who are worried. Every healthy democracy needs a strong opposition to hold the government to account. Today, the Conservative government is looking increasingly untouchable. So how did the Tories win Hartlepool, a town described by one analyst as “the reddest of red seats”? The experts are baffled. Conservative leader Boris Johnson has faced scandal after scandal. He was fired from his first job as a journalist at The Times newspaper after making up a quote. Then, in 2004, he was sacked again as Shadow Arts Minister after lying about an affair. He has said that Muslim women wearing veils look like “bank robbers” and once called the children of single mothers “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate”. In public, he refuses to say how many children he has. As foreign secretary, he wrongly told MPs that a British woman jailed in Iran on suspicion of spying was teaching journalism. In reality, she was on holiday. According to one 2019 poll, just one in five Britons trust him. Now, Johnson has been accused by former adviser Dominic Cummings of an “unethical, foolish and possibly illegal” plan to have political donors pay to furnish his flat. For any other politician, it would be a recipe for disaster. Yet time and time again, Boris Johnson has sailed to electoral success. He was voted in twice as the Mayor of London and was the face of the winning Brexit campaign. Then, in 2019, less than six months after replacing Theresa May as Prime Minister, he led the Conservatives to a landslide victory at the general election. “Lots of people are just awed by his charisma,” says British politics professor Nicholas Allen. “They know that he is problematic. They know that he’s a flawed character and they do not care. If anything, they love him more for it.” Do morals no longer matter in politics? Lovable rogue? It is true, say some. In the information age, voters are bored by traditional, polished politicians. With thousands of headlines published every day online, it is the candidates with the most personality and charisma that remain at the forefront of voters’ minds. Sleaze and scandal no longer signal the end of a political career - just look at Donald Trump’s meteoric rise to the US presidency. Morals DO still matter, say others. MPs regularly quit their roles in the government and the shadow cabinet when they disagree with official policy. Voters still make their opinions heard. In 2019, disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya lost her seat after residents signed a recall petition. And the Hartlepool by-election is only happening because the town’s former MP resigned amid harassment allegations. KeywordsBy-election - An election held outside a general election to replace an MP who has resigned or otherwise left office.