SIR KEIR STARMER was urged to pursue more “positive” grassroots policies today after Conservatives defied the odds to cling onto Boris Johnson’s old seat.

Labour and the Lib Dems won by-elections in former Tory safe seats, both overturning majorities of about 20,000 in Selby and Ainsty and in Somerton and Frome respectively.

But a shock defeat in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in London saw Labour leader Keir Starmer ask Mayor Sadiq Khan to “reflect” on plans to expand the Ulez anti-pollution driving charge – despite saying he had “no choice” over the matter earlier this month.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the result showed the next general election was not a “done deal,” with new Tory MP Steve Tuckwell painting the vote as a referendum on the toll after winning by 495 votes.

Lifelong socialist David Williams, who resigned as chairman of Uxbridge and South Ruislip Labour CLP and the party moments after the announcement, blamed the Labour leadership for “mishandling” the local campaign.

He told the Morning Star that Labour would have won if they hadn’t snubbed the CLP’s preferred parliamentary contender Connor Liberty in favour of Starmer-appointed centrist Danny Beales. 

He added he was among “several” members who had planned to resign simultaneously after the vote, because Labour “is just an impossible party for a socialist to stay in at the moment.”

Mr Williams said: “I think it would have (made the difference). What people have said is Ulez – I don’t disregard that. 

“It feels to me that factionalism in the party is such that if you are a left-wing candidate you’re really, really not welcome and they would rather lose the election than get you elected.

“I’d say they mishandled rather than missed local issues. The Ulez issue is complex in so far that people want to have cleaner air to breathe but the people who were paying the penalty for that were the poorest people who were driving the oldest cars.

“Danny Beale’s stance on it was, let’s talk to the mayor about getting an extension.

“The Tories were using local issues rather than national issues all the way through their campaign and it just wasn’t sufficient.

“We need to have really positive policies that make people sit up and say ‘I want that’.”

Another member of Uxbridge Labour pointed out the Uxbridge seat has never been Labour, adding: "This was the last chance basically to get our feet under the table and it got blown by not engaging with local issues.

"I get the feeling from feedback from voters that they weren't using the data properly.

“Local issues, for example HS2, didn't seem to figure in our campaign at all.

“The constituency is divided by the A40. There’s different issues in different areas and it needed to me more localised.”

A Momentum spokesman said: “Starmer’s stitch-ups are weakening the Labour Party as a campaigning force.

“From Wakefield to Uxbridge, Kensington to Sedgefield, the leadership is alienating local members and grassroots activists with their high-handed, anti-democratic interventions.

“In tight elections like this one, that matters.”

Mr Khan said he was “disappointed” Labour did not win but said his Ulez decision was a “tough one, but the right one.”

In Selby and Ainsty, 25-year-old Keir Mather will become the youngest MP in the Commons after overturning a 20,137 majority to win by 4,161 votes – the second largest swing managed by Labour at a by-election since 1945.

But Labour were wiped out in Somerset and Frome, coming fourth with 1,009 votes behind the Reform Party’s 1,303 and Green Party’s 3,944.

Sir Keir went to the North Yorkshire constituency – not far from Mr Sunak’s seat – to celebrate the “historic” victory at Selby Town Football Club.

He said: “We hear that cry for change away from the chaos, away from those rising bills, the crumbling public services – a cry for change and we will deliver.”

Communist Party general secretary Rob Griffiths said: “British establishment politics have hit a new low, with electors refusing to vote in their scores of thousands.

“Labour struggled to increase their votes in two of today’s by-elections, while disappearing altogether in Somerset & Frome due to tactical voting for the Lib Dems who stand for nothing new or different.

“The biggest winners were the stay-at-homes as the majority of electors abstained, the Conservative vote collapsed and so few people were enthused by Keir Starmer’s Tory-lite politics.”