A heavy defeat for Boris Johnson: The British Prime Minister's Conservatives have suffered defeats in two by-elections: The Tories lost in by-elections for one seat each in the British House of Commons in both the Tiverton and Honiton constituencies in south-west England and in Wakefield in northern England on Thursday.

As a consequence, party leader Oliver Dowden resigned.

The elections were seen as a mood test for Johnson, who is under a lot of pressure because of the affair about parties at the seat of government during the corona lockdown.

The Tory majority in the House of Commons is not in danger from the change of the two seats.

The defeats in Tiverton and Honiton are particularly painful.

The Tories have held the seat in one form or another for more than a hundred years, and in the last general election candidate Neil Parish had won it by more than 20,000 votes.

Now, however, the seat has been lost to the Liberal Democrats.

They had appealed to all voters in the constituency to support their candidate in order to beat Conservative candidate Helen Hurford.

That has worked.

Liberal Democrat Richard Foord got more than 6,000 votes more than second-place Hurford.

Labor's Liz Pole came in third with just over a thousand and a half votes.

The Tiverton and Honiton by-elections were necessitated by MP Neil Parish's resignation in April after complaints about

Labor had reason to celebrate in Wakefield, in the north of England.

The party held that seat long before the Tories made a big break in the so-called red wall – seats traditionally held by Labor – in northern England in the 2019 general election.

In Wakefield, Labor candidate Simon Lightwood won by almost 5,000 votes ahead of Conservative Nadeem Ahmed.

The win is important to Labor leader Keir Starmer, who was hoping to show the party can still win elections under his leadership.

The Wakefield by-election was called after MP Imran Ahmad Khan withdrew after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

Conservative party leader Oliver Dowd took the consequences of the poor results that night and resigned from office.

In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he wrote that the recent defeats are just the latest in a run of very bad results for the party.

"Our supporters are disturbed and disappointed by recent events and I share those feelings.

We can't just carry on as we have been." That's why he's taking responsibility and stepping down, Dowden said.

Demands for the Prime Minister's resignation came from the party leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey that night.

The result in Tiverton and Honiton shows it is the right time for the Conservatives to "do the right thing" and see off Johnson.

The Prime Minister was on Friday morning in Britain from the Commonwealth Summit in Rwanda.

He said he wanted to listen to voters.

But he added: "We will go ahead and respond to people's concerns."

He had not commented on the results themselves until early in the morning.

Johnson is not even in the country, but is at the Commonwealth Summit in Rwanda.

He then travels first to the G-7 summit in Germany and then to the NATO summit in Spain, so he won't be back in London until next week, which will give him a little time.