The constituents of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire have voted to remove MP Peter Bone from his seat via a recall petition. This means that a by-election will be held in the area in the forthcoming year. The decision to recall Bone followed his suspension as an MP over accusations of bullying and sexual misconduct, which he has denied.
Bone has been the MP for Wellingborough since 2005, where he turned the area into a strongly Conservative seat. However, the recent by-election is expected to be challenging for Rishi Sunak, as current polls show that the Tories are lagging behind Labour. Bone’s suspension also put him in the position of an independent MP, following the Conservative Party withdrawing the whip from him.
The recall petition required 10% of eligible voters in Wellingborough to sign it for Bone to lose his seat. It was signed by 13.2% of voters in the constituency, leading to his removal. Bone won the seat in the last general election in 2019 with a large majority of 18,540. Labour’s Anneliese Dodds said that Bone had dragged his constituents through a prolonged recall petition instead of offering his resignation willingly.
In an official statement, previously made on Twitter, Bone stated that the allegations that led to the recall petition were “totally untrue and without foundation.” He also said that he would have more to say on the matter in the coming year. Meanwhile, Labour has nominated councillor Gen Kitchen as its candidate for the seat in the upcoming by-election, while the Lib Dems have selected former Northamptonshire Police officer Ana Savage Gunn.
This by-election in Wellingborough, which is not expected to happen before February, will be the 20th such vote to happen since the last general election in 2019. Of those twenty elections, six have occurred this year. Additionally, Labour won four of the six previous by-elections, with the Lib Dems and Conservatives each winning one
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