Britain’s opposition Labour Party wins 2 big prizes in momentum-building special elections

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s main opposition Labour Party has decisively won two special elections. They snatched seats in Parliament that were long rock-solid bastions of the governing Conservatives. Results early Friday showed that voters in Tamworth, central England and Mid-Bedfordshire, north of London, switched from Conservatives to Labour in almost unprecedented numbers. Labour leader Keir Starmer claimed his party was “redrawing the political map.” Polling expert John Curtice said the “exceptional swings” to Labour could be compared to the collapse in Conservative support in the 1990s that led to a Labour landslide in 1997.