Jack Burgess
BBC News Live reporter

We're about to bring our by-elections live page to a close.

But before we go, here's a quick recap of some of today's main developments in the British political world:

• The Conservatives have suffered two heavy defeats in the Selby and Ainsty, and Somerton and Frome by-elections
• But they have narrowly held on to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's old seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip
• Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the Conservatives' success in north-west London shows the next election result is "not a done deal"
• Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says his party overturning a 20,000 Tory majority in Selby and Ainsty demonstrates his party has changed and "can win anywhere"
• In Somerset, Liberal Democrats' leader Sir Ed Davey claims his party's win in Somerton and Frome shows voters are uniting to defeat the Conservatives
• Both Labour and the Tories attributed the Conservatives' narrow victory in Uxbridge to dissatisfaction with London Mayor Sadiq Khan's plans to expand the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (Ulez)

Our live page was edited today by myself, James Fitzgerald and Aoife Walsh.

It was written by Anna Boyd, Ece Goksedef, Adam Durbin, Antoinette Radford, Sean Seddon, Andre Rhoden-Paul, Gem O Reilly and Jacqueline Howard.

Yasmin Rufo
Reporting from Uxbridge

Natalia Kantovich, a lawyer from Uxbridge says that she thinks Labour didn’t win the by-election there “because they don’t offer anything new, exciting or different”.

“If every party is basically the same, people will just stick with voting for what they know," she added.

Natalie and many other Labour voters in Uxbridge tell me they don’t feel confident that the party will win the next general election.

“Everyone acts like it’s a given that Labour are going to win, but I don’t think it’s a given, especially after the results last night here,” said Joe, a student from South Ruislip.

Read more from Uxbridge voters here.

Paul Seddon
BBC News, politics reporter

Image source, PA MEDIA

Boris Johnson says WhatsApps before May 2021 that are due to be handed to the Covid inquiry have now been downloaded.

There has been a delay in getting them to the inquiry, as they were on the former prime minister's old phone and he could not remember the pass code.

Technicians feared that getting it wrong could lead to the data being wiped.

But there was a breakthrough last week, when the government found a record of his Pin code.

A spokesman said technical experts had now "successfully recovered all relevant messages from the device".

The inquiry has requested the WhatsApp messages as part of its investigations into UK government decision-making on Covid. Hearings for that part of the inquiry are due to begin in October.

Read more on this story here.

Children's Minister Claire Coutinho has admitted the Tories' defeats were disappointing, saying many of the party's supporters "didn't come out and vote for us".

Speaking to the BBC earlier she said, despite Labour's win in Selby and Ainsty, she felt voters weren't "particularly attracted" to Sir Keir Starmer when she visited the seat.

She said the government was "turning a corner" on inflation and has to "keep going" on areas like the NHS, cost of living and public sector strikes.

Coutinho said Ulez was an important factor in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip poll but rejected the suggestion that it was the only reason the Tories narrowly won, praising Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for projecting "stability".

Image source, EPA

Three by-elections were held yesterday - with the Conservatives losing two of them - and we could be expecting a couple more by-elections soon.

One is for former culture secretary Nadine Dorries' seat in Mid Bedfordshire. We don't know when, because Dorries hasn't delivered on her promise to stand down yet.

And then there's Tamworth - the seat held by former Conservative whip Chris Pincher, who resigned from government amid sexual harassment allegations.

Pincher is still an MP but is now facing an eight-week Commons suspension, after a report from Parliament's standards commissioner found he groped two people at a London club last year.

The recommended sanction - if approved by MPs - would trigger a recall petition in his constituency, potentially leading to a by-election.

Image source, Reuters

Members of Parliament are elected using the First Past the Post system.

In simple terms, each voter casts one ballot for a candidate in their constituency and the candidate with the most votes becomes the MP.

The UK is currently divided into 650 parliamentary constituencies, represented by one MP each in the House of Commons.

After a general election – or by-election – MPs are required by law to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown.

From here, they can take their seat, speak in debates, vote and receive their salary.

Image source, PA Media

The Conservatives' by-election results were "not good" but better than expected, prominent backbench Tory MP Sir Michael Fabricant has said.

He told BBC News he expected his party's performance to "be worse", revealing he anticipated the Tories would lose all three by-elections.

Sir Michael continued "there's no room for complacency by the Conservatives and the Conservative Party has to deliver on its promises; a bit less talk and a bit more do".

The Lichfield MP added it would be "unwise" for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to be "a little too smug" and argues the results were due to Tory voters staying at home.

Image source, GETTY IMAGES

While we expect the general election to take place next year, an exact date is yet to be set.

Here’s a quick guide to the rules around how and when it could happen:

• General elections - where all 650 MPs are elected to the Commons - have to be held no more than five years apart
• The current parliament first met on 17 December 2019. The next election is therefore due by January 2025, which includes the time required to run an election campaign
• Early elections can be called, which requires the prime minister to make a “request” to the King to dissolve Parliament
• Once called, polling day would be expected to take place 25 working days later.
• An early general election could also be forced if the incumbent prime minister loses a no confidence vote

Read more on this story here.

Image source, PA

The new Liberal Democrat MP for Somerton and Frome has deep roots in Somerset.

According to a party profile of their by-election winner, Sarah Dyke comes from a farming family that has links to the county stretching back 250 years.

She was selected as the Lib Dem's candidate for the next election back in June 2022, long before the resignation of David Warburton triggered a vote earlier than she would have expected.

A week before being picked as a parliamentary candidate, Dyke was elected to Somerset County Council - beating the local Conservative Party's "dedicated anti-Lib Dem unit", the party boasted.

Dyke has held the environment and climate change brief for the council and has previously spoken out on issues impacting rural areas.

The by-election results confirm the Tories are in "as deep an electoral hole" as the opinion polls suggest despite the party's narrow victory in Uxbridge, the BBC's polling expert Prof John Curtice says.

Curtice says the overall Tory vote is down by around 21% in all three votes, which matches the national polling, indicating they are around 18% behind Labour.

"These elections don't necessarily mean the Conservatives' position looks any worse than it did before yesterday morning, but it certainly doesn't look any better," he says.

On the takeaways from Labour's result, Curtice says it appears the party lost to a Conservative campaign focused on opposing the extension of London's ultra low emissions zone (Ulez).

He says the result suggests the commitment to Labour among voters was not so strong that it could override the backdrop of the local Tory campaign.

Curtice adds there are questions about whether Labour's apparent strategy to "say as little as possible, to offend as few people as possible" was working, or if the party would be better placed trying to "make voters somewhat more enthusiastic" about policy plans for after the general election.

Image source, PA Media

Newly-elected Conservative MP Steve Tuckwell was a surprise winner in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, defeating the second-placed Labour candidate by fewer than 500 votes.

Turckwell has been a councillor for South Ruislip on Hillingdon Council, in west London, since 2018.

A lifelong Hillingdon resident, he said he was "humbled and proud to be elected in the area I was born, raised and built a family in".

Before his political career, Tuckwell worked in a variety of senior managerial roles for the Post Office and other private logistics firms.

Image source, PA Media

Laurence Fox, actor and candidate for the Reclaim Party at the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, has lost his electoral deposit after securing around 2% of the vote.

To stand for Parliament, all parties or candidates must pay a £500 deposit - which is forfeit if they secure less than 5% of the vote, under Electoral Commission rules, external.

Fox, who has established himself as a vocal anti-lockdown campaigner and GB News broadcaster in recent years, received 714 votes at the count last night - which amounts to 2.31% of the total.

At the count earlier last night ahead of the results, he accused the BBC of being "as reliable as North Korean state media" and claimed he had been refused an interview under any circumstances.

By-elections give trio of opportunities for political smilespublished at 16:38 British Summer Time 21 July 2023

16:38 BST 21 July 2023

Chris Mason
Political editor

Labour grins in North Yorkshire, Liberal Democrats' delight in Somerset, beaming Conservatives in outer London. But beneath that made-for-the-cameras joy, a more complex picture to unpick.

The landscape remains bleak for the Conservatives. A trouncing in two former rural strongholds leavened mildly by narrowly clinging on in a suburb of the capital.

But Labour’s record-breaking triumph in rural Yorkshire was punctured by public awkwardness from both the party leader and Labour’s Mayor of London over the soon-to-be-expanded emissions scheme the Mayor is blamed for.

The Lib Dems are jubilant – proud to have rediscovered and solidified electoral vitality after the near-death experience of much of the last decade.

In truth, this set of elections probably leaves all three of these parties where they already were psychologically.

The Lib Dems asking themselves how much they can replicate this at a general election, when their efforts are more thinly spread. Labour - starting to believe they can win but with lingering jitters about what might stand in their way. The Conservatives - up against it.

Image source, PA Media

Keir Mather, 25, has become the youngest MP in the House of Commons after Labour won the Selby and Ainsty by-election.

Labour has won the seat for the first time and overturned a massive 20,137 majority won by Conservative predecessor Nigel Adams who had resigned from the North Yorkshire seat.

Mather, who now will be known as the Baby of the House, was born in Hull and grew up near Selby before studying History and Politics at the University of Oxford.

Most recently he worked for the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and as a parliamentary researcher for Labour MP Wes Streeting.

Katy Austin
Transport correspondent

Image source, Reuters

A £12.50 daily charge applies for driving in London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) if the vehicle doesn't meet certain emission standards.

The current zone is contained by the North and South Circular roads. In November 2022, a further expansion to cover all London boroughs was confirmed. This is due to come into effect on 29 August 2023.

Some people are eligible to apply for a £110m scrappage scheme and the current London Mayor Sadiq Khan has defended the expansion as necessary to tackle air pollution.

But it has drawn criticism from some residents, businesses and politicians, with concerns including the financial impact during a cost-of-living squeeze.

Five Conservative-run councils have launched legal action.

Some other UK cities have their own, different clean air zones and the UK is due to ban the sale of new petrol or diesel cars from 2030.

Image source, .

Online ads show Ulez at heart of Tory Uxbridge campaignpublished at 16:00 British Summer Time 21 July 2023

16:00 BST 21 July 2023

Image source, REUTERS/Toby Melville

An analysis of adverts on both Instagram and Facebook placed before the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election reveals marked differences in strategy from the two main candidates.

According to data from Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, the London Labour Party spent £6,411 on 76 digital adverts on their platforms to promote the 'Danny Beales for Uxbridge & South Ruislip' page.

These adverts - published between May and July - covered a broad range of policy issues, from policing to the state of a local hospital or the cost of living crisis.

In contrast, the Conservative Party appears to have opted for a more targeted approach, spending £3,705 on just 27 adverts promoting the “Steve Tuckwell - The Local Choice” page in July.

In all but three of them, Steve Tuckwell can be seen repeatedly criticising Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan’s plans to expand London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez).

On Facebook, Tuckwell’s campaign account also co-ran a private Facebook group titled “Hillingdon say no to Ulez expansion”, with over 5,000 members.

Jennifer McKiernan
reporting from Uxbridge

Paul Shepherdson, 58, said he voted Conservative because candidate Steve Tuckwell is "a local lad".

He tells me: "I talked to him and I liked his policy... For me it wasn't really about Ulez.

"For me it's more about the immigration situation that needs a solution.

"I think we need to get behind the government."

The results in the West Country and North Yorkshire tell us "more about the national mood" than the by-election in north west London, a political scientist has said.

Tony Travers, director of LSE's London research centre, tells BBC News the results indicate the polls "are broadly correct" in showing Labour ahead.

He says the vote share suggests tactical voting against the Conservative party played a role yesterday in both the Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome by-elections.

But Travers also adds Labour should think about "how it balances the views of its city-based voters, and those who like the ultra-low emissions zone, against those in areas where public transport is less effective".

Each of England's three major parties has won a seat in Thursday's by-elections. Here are the victorious candidates:

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Ione Wells
Political correspondent

The chair of Uxbridge Labour has resigned, external but says it has "nothing to do with the by-election" and was "planned weeks ago".

David Williams tells the BBC he was unhappy with Sir Keir Starmer's leadership and the party's "move to the right".

Williams says he told colleagues he wouldn't hand in his resignation until after the result as he didn't want it to impact the campaign.

Deciding factors he mentions include Starmer saying he wouldn't scrap the two-child benefit cap, feeling the party was not "supporting" the NHS and Labour MPs being encouraged not to join picket lines with striking workers.

The 67-year-old adds he has been a member of the party since he was in his twenties.