16 November 2021

Helen Morgan wins the North Shropshire by-election for the Liberal Democrats

The by-election was caused by the resignation of Conservative MP Owen Patterson after he was found by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to have breached lobbying rules. The subsequent efforts by the government to undermine the report by the Commissioner and to get Patterson off the hook backfired and became a major issue in the campaign. This was reinforced by the Partygate scandal which hit the headlines in the week before polling day. Anger over the state of local ambulance services and the future of farming post-Brexit also served to damage the government. The result was a triumph for the Liberal Democrats with Helen Morgan winning with a majority of 5,925 on a swing of 34.2% – the seventh largest swing in UK by-election history. Morgan was the first non-conservative elected for the constituency since the Liberals won another by-election in 1904.