WATCH: Conservatives 'will fear an electoral pincer movement'
Our political editor Chris Mason has been giving his assessment of where things stand as votes are counted tonight in West Yorkshire and Devon.
Mason - speaking on the BBC's Newscast - says what would worry Conservative MPs is to see support for the party being eroded in both the north and south of England.
Video content
Video caption: Why are the English by-elections important?Why are the English by-elections important?
Wakefield by-election: A campaign of expectation management
James Vincent
BBC Look North Political Editor, reporting from Wakefield
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
This election is weird. We might not need to focus on the party that wins. The story might be about who loses.
Both Labour and Conservatives have been playing down their chances. I mean really playing them down. Like I’ve never seen before. There have been huge ups and downs and a very interesting game of expectation management.
Two senior Conservatives basically told me they had no chance near the start of the campaign. Then Labour started getting nervous about how much people were talking them up and started briefing that it was closer than people thought.
That in turn made the Conservatives more confident. It could be very close. And whoever loses, it will pose big questions for their leader.
Tory MP admits Tiverton and Honiton by-election 'very challenging'
Conservative MP Luke Hall says the party's candidate in Tiverton and Honiton, Helen Hurford, has been "excellent" and has fought "a really positive campaign, talking about issues that actually matter to people, that are really cutting through on the doorstep".
He tells BBC Newsnight it's too soon to say what the result will be - but the party has been fighting these elections "in very challenging circumstances".
He adds that "by-elections are very bad predictors of general elections".
Many Tory MPs will be looking over their shoulders, say Lib Dems
The Liberal Democrats are joining in the expectation management as votes are being counted in Tiverton and Honiton.
The party's Treasury spokeswoman, Christine Jardine, notes: "Never in the history of British politics has a majority this big been overturned in a by-election. We've said throughout this campaign this is a huge mountain to climb."
However, she adds, if the Conservatives lose significant numbers of votes tonight in one of their safest seats "there will be countless Conservative MPs looking over their shoulders nervously tomorrow".
Wakefield vote: Less about politics and more about people
James Vincent
BBC Look North political editor, reporting from Wakefield
For many people the by-election here is all about what it can tell us about Keir Starmer/Boris Johnson/insert politician’s name here and how their career is going.
But there are 69,000 people who just want a new MP. Wakefield, Ossett and the rest of the constituency hasn’t had any real representation for at least a year.
With the previous MP now in prison - trying to appeal against his conviction - people haven’t really heard the word Wakefield in the House of Commons for a while. After tonight they will have someone sent to Westminster to represent this part of West Yorkshire.
Yep, the national narrative is important. But people need help from their MPs. Wakefield will have someone to call in a few hours.
The boxes are also being emptied in Tiverton and Honiton
BBCCopyright: BBC
Vote counters for the Tiverton and Honiton by-election have begun verifying votes after ballot boxes arrived.
Lords Meadow Leisure Centre in Crediton is the venue for the count being carried out by Mid Devon District Council.
Ballot boxes arrive at Wakefield count
The first of many ballot boxes have begun to arrive at the count in Wakefield's Thornes Park.
Video caption: First ballot boxes arrive at Wakefield by-electionFirst ballot boxes arrive at Wakefield by-election
Analysis
Labour play down talk of 'landslide' in Wakefield
Iain Watson
Political correspondent reporting from Wakefield
Labour lost to the Conservatives here on a 6% swing
in 2019.
The party has been careful to stress it won't win the seat back in a landslide and that it held it with a majority of only a couple of thousand in 2017 on a turnout of 64%. The turnout today will have been much lower than in a
general election.
But Labour's aim - and I'm not predicting the result - is to
more than reverse that 6% swing to the Tories.
It hopes it can achieve a swing of around 8% to take the seat by a comfortable margin.
The Conservatives are insisting the result will be closer.
Tiverton and Honiton: By-election rare test of public opinion
Martyn Oates
BBC South West Political Editor, reporting from Crediton
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
The by-election in Tiverton and Honiton was triggered by the resignation of Neil Parish after he admitted watching pornography in the House of Commons on his mobile phone.
By-elections are extremely rare in south-west England – the last one was in 1987.
Because they offer a rare test of public opinion between general elections they tend to be invested with a lot of significance beyond the locality in which they’re taking place and this one is no exception.
Indeed, it’s particularly interesting as a snapshot of voters’ views on Boris Johnson and his government – just weeks after he narrowly survived a confidence vote in his role as Conservative leader by his own MPs.
On paper this highly rural constituency - stretching from the southern fringes of Exmoor down to the Jurassic Coast - should be a very safe Conservative seat.
Outgoing MP Neil Parish had a majority of more than 24,000 and the area covered by the current constituency boundaries has only been represented by Conservative MPs for nearly 100 years.
However, recent by-elections in Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire – also previously impregnable Conservative strongholds – saw the Liberal Democrats demolish enormous Tory majorities to take both those seats.
Were the Liberal Democrat candidate to win in Tiverton and Honiton, he would be the party's first MP west of Bath since their collapse across the South West in the 2015 general election.
The Wakefield constituency - a brief history
Wakefield has, for most people's lifetimes, been a Labour city - but that changed at the 2019 general election.
Not since the Empire State Building was opened in New York in 1931 had a Conservative MP been sent to Westminster to represent this part of West Yorkshire.
In 1842, the first national trade union for miners was set up in Wakefield. Of course, looking back at the Miners' Association of Great Britain and Ireland's formation 180 years ago might not necessarily be that useful for guessing how people have voted in 2022.
However the National Coal Mining Museum is still tucked away in the bottom left corner of the Wakefield constituency. That heritage still means a great deal here.
Click here for more on Wakefield by BBC Yorkshire Political Editor James Vincent.
A busy night awaits in Devon
Andrew Segal
BBC South West
Staff and vote counters at a Devon council say they're expecting a "busy night for everyone" as they await the arrival of the first ballot boxes from the Tiverton and Honiton by-election.
Lords Meadow Leisure Centre in Crediton is the venue for Mid Devon District Council's count.
We expect to get the declaration from the Wakefield count some time after 02:00, and from Tiverton and Honiton at around 04:00 - and we will bring you snap analysis from our political correspondents and the BBC's regional political editors who are in the constituencies.
Of course, as with all elections, it’s possible the declaration times could slip, but we fully hope to get the final figures before breakfast.
Why have these by-elections been held?
Voters in Wakefield have been choosing a new representative after their Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan was jailed for 18 months having been convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. He was expelled by the Tory Party and later stood down as an MP - triggering today’s vote.
Tiverton and Honiton’s Tory MP Neil Parish resigned from Parliament in early May after admitting he had watched pornography in the House of Commons chamber twice - once by accident and the second time deliberately. He came forward after two female colleagues said they had seen a male MP looking at adult content while sitting near them.
Counting of by-election votes due to start
As we've been reporting, the polls have now closed for Westminster by-elections in Wakefield, West Yorkshire and Tiverton and Honiton in Devon, where the Conservatives are attempting to hold off challenges from Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
The polls took place in a month in which Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a confidence vote of his MPs at Westminster - 41% of whom said they no longer wanted him to be leader.
Johnson also faces a Commons inquiry over whether he knowingly misled Parliament about lockdown parties in Downing Street.
Labour are hoping to overturn a Conservative majority in Wakefield of just over 3,000, but the Liberal Democrats face a much tougher challenge in Tiverton and Honiton, where the Tories had a majority of more than 24,000 at the 2019 general election.
Johnson 'would be crazy to quit' if Tories lose both by-elections
Alex Forsyth
Travelling with the prime minister
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
Boris Johnson has dismissed as "crazy" suggestions that he’ll resign if he loses the by-elections in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield.
Speaking to reporters before he flew to Rwanda for the Commonwealth summit, the prime minister was asked how much responsibility he’d take if the Conservatives lost both seats.
He pointed to last year’s Tory win in the Hartlepool by-election, saying governing parties did not usually win by-elections, especially in mid-term. He has also said he'll be watching the results "with interest".
With expectation rife that losing both seats could further
undermine the PM’s beleaguered leadership, the Conservatives have been careful to manage
expectations ahead of tonight’s declarations.
Asked what he thought of suggestions that the 1922 Committee
of backbench Tory MPs could change party rules to engineer a second vote of
confidence in his leadership, Johnson said the less you talked about Westminster issues, the more
you were serving the country,
Analysis
Lib Dems see 'tight' vote in Tiverton and Honiton as Tories predict 'difficult night'
Nick Eardley
Reporting from Devon
The Conservatives won Tiverton and Honiton by more than 24,000 votes in 2019 – but it’s possible that tonight they’ll
lose it.
If they do, BBC analysis shows it will be the biggest majority ever overturned at a by-election.
It would also be the third time in this Parliament that the Tories have lost a previously safe seat to the Liberal Democrats.
The Lib Dems have thrown
everything at this constituency in the last few weeks. I’m told that today
alone, they spoke to 20,000 voters here. Senior Lib Dems won’t
say tonight that they are definitely going to win – a source told me things are
looking “very, very tight”. But the party thinks they are in with a good chance
of taking this seat in what would be a huge turnaround.
The Conservatives meanwhile
are saying they expect a difficult night. Despite their majority last
time, they’d be delighted at scraping by with a
narrow win.
We’ll know for sure in the
next few hours.
But if the Tories do lose
tonight it will make many Conservative MPs extremely nervous and may lead some to think a bit
more about Boris Johnson’s future.
Analysis
The scene in Wakefield as polls close
Iain Watson
Reporting from Wakefield
Until the last general election, Labour had held Wakefield since 1932. But in 2019 the so-called 'Red Wall' of Leave-voting seats in the North of
England and the Midlands crumbled as the Conservatives promised to 'get Brexit
done.'
So, with the polls now closed in this West Yorkshire seat, tonight is an electoral test of whether party leader Sir
Keir Starmer has begun - at the very
least - to rebuild trust with lost voters.
For Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the result could signal whether he really did
achieve a lasting political realignment at the general election - constructing a new
coalition of Conservative supporters - or whether voters in what were
traditionally Labour seats simply loaned his party their backing.
There are local factors at play, of course - the previous Tory MP is in prison, convicted of sexually assaulting a teenager.
But voters I've spoken to today who have abandoned the
PM's party tended to mention Johnson himself as their main reason for doing
so.
"I want to send a message to Boris and his cronies" as
one woman, emerging from a polling station in a traditionally Tory area, put it.
Labour has to overturn a Conservative majority of more
than 3,300 - and is confident of doing so.
The Conservatives here insist the result will be close, though
sources at Westminster are more downbeat.
But if Labour is right, the scale of victory will be important
too - so look out for the party's share of the vote. The actual majority is
less important as turnout will be lower than at general elections.
Labour got
just under 40% when it lost in 2019 - but polled just under 50% In 2017 and
just over 40% in 2015, both times winning in Wakefield but losing nationally. So to be
on course for a breakthrough across Britain, it needs to do more than just
regain lost ground.
Who are the candidates?
Both seats, in West Yorkshire and Devon, were won by the Conservatives at the last general election, in 2019.
This time, voters in Honiton and Tiverton can choose from eight candidates and in Wakefield, it’s between 15.
Polling stations have been open since 07:00 BST in both constituencies.Image caption: Polling stations have been open since 07:00 BST in both constituencies.
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
In Wakefield, this good boy waited for his voter to cast their ballot.Image caption: In Wakefield, this good boy waited for his voter to cast their ballot.
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Voters in Uffculme, Devon, were not to be outdone.Image caption: Voters in Uffculme, Devon, were not to be outdone.
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Double-up: This pub was used as a polling station for voters in Honiton.Image caption: Double-up: This pub was used as a polling station for voters in Honiton.
Welcome along
Good evening and welcome to our live coverage of the Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton by-elections.
People living in the two Westminster constituencies have until 22:00 BST to vote for their new MP.
Live Reporting
Edited by Chris Clayton
All times stated are UK
WATCH: Conservatives 'will fear an electoral pincer movement'
Our political editor Chris Mason has been giving his assessment of where things stand as votes are counted tonight in West Yorkshire and Devon.
Mason - speaking on the BBC's Newscast - says what would worry Conservative MPs is to see support for the party being eroded in both the north and south of England.
Video content
Wakefield by-election: A campaign of expectation management
James Vincent
BBC Look North Political Editor, reporting from Wakefield
This election is weird. We might not need to focus on the party that wins. The story might be about who loses.
Both Labour and Conservatives have been playing down their chances. I mean really playing them down. Like I’ve never seen before. There have been huge ups and downs and a very interesting game of expectation management.
Two senior Conservatives basically told me they had no chance near the start of the campaign. Then Labour started getting nervous about how much people were talking them up and started briefing that it was closer than people thought.
That in turn made the Conservatives more confident. It could be very close. And whoever loses, it will pose big questions for their leader.
Tory MP admits Tiverton and Honiton by-election 'very challenging'
Conservative MP Luke Hall says the party's candidate in Tiverton and Honiton, Helen Hurford, has been "excellent" and has fought "a really positive campaign, talking about issues that actually matter to people, that are really cutting through on the doorstep".
He tells BBC Newsnight it's too soon to say what the result will be - but the party has been fighting these elections "in very challenging circumstances".
He adds that "by-elections are very bad predictors of general elections".
Many Tory MPs will be looking over their shoulders, say Lib Dems
The Liberal Democrats are joining in the expectation management as votes are being counted in Tiverton and Honiton.
The party's Treasury spokeswoman, Christine Jardine, notes: "Never in the history of British politics has a majority this big been overturned in a by-election. We've said throughout this campaign this is a huge mountain to climb."
However, she adds, if the Conservatives lose significant numbers of votes tonight in one of their safest seats "there will be countless Conservative MPs looking over their shoulders nervously tomorrow".
Wakefield vote: Less about politics and more about people
James Vincent
BBC Look North political editor, reporting from Wakefield
For many people the by-election here is all about what it can tell us about Keir Starmer/Boris Johnson/insert politician’s name here and how their career is going.
But there are 69,000 people who just want a new MP. Wakefield, Ossett and the rest of the constituency hasn’t had any real representation for at least a year.
With the previous MP now in prison - trying to appeal against his conviction - people haven’t really heard the word Wakefield in the House of Commons for a while. After tonight they will have someone sent to Westminster to represent this part of West Yorkshire.
Yep, the national narrative is important. But people need help from their MPs. Wakefield will have someone to call in a few hours.
The boxes are also being emptied in Tiverton and Honiton
Vote counters for the Tiverton and Honiton by-election have begun verifying votes after ballot boxes arrived.
Lords Meadow Leisure Centre in Crediton is the venue for the count being carried out by Mid Devon District Council.
Ballot boxes arrive at Wakefield count
The first of many ballot boxes have begun to arrive at the count in Wakefield's Thornes Park.
While they may not beat Sunderland in the race to return ballot papers to awaiting counters, neither are they hanging around in West Yorkshire.
Video content
Labour play down talk of 'landslide' in Wakefield
Iain Watson
Political correspondent reporting from Wakefield
Labour lost to the Conservatives here on a 6% swing in 2019.
The party has been careful to stress it won't win the seat back in a landslide and that it held it with a majority of only a couple of thousand in 2017 on a turnout of 64%. The turnout today will have been much lower than in a general election.
But Labour's aim - and I'm not predicting the result - is to more than reverse that 6% swing to the Tories.
It hopes it can achieve a swing of around 8% to take the seat by a comfortable margin.
The Conservatives are insisting the result will be closer.
Tiverton and Honiton: By-election rare test of public opinion
Martyn Oates
BBC South West Political Editor, reporting from Crediton
The by-election in Tiverton and Honiton was triggered by the resignation of Neil Parish after he admitted watching pornography in the House of Commons on his mobile phone.
By-elections are extremely rare in south-west England – the last one was in 1987.
Because they offer a rare test of public opinion between general elections they tend to be invested with a lot of significance beyond the locality in which they’re taking place and this one is no exception.
Indeed, it’s particularly interesting as a snapshot of voters’ views on Boris Johnson and his government – just weeks after he narrowly survived a confidence vote in his role as Conservative leader by his own MPs.
On paper this highly rural constituency - stretching from the southern fringes of Exmoor down to the Jurassic Coast - should be a very safe Conservative seat.
Outgoing MP Neil Parish had a majority of more than 24,000 and the area covered by the current constituency boundaries has only been represented by Conservative MPs for nearly 100 years.
However, recent by-elections in Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire – also previously impregnable Conservative strongholds – saw the Liberal Democrats demolish enormous Tory majorities to take both those seats.
Were the Liberal Democrat candidate to win in Tiverton and Honiton, he would be the party's first MP west of Bath since their collapse across the South West in the 2015 general election.
The Wakefield constituency - a brief history
Wakefield has, for most people's lifetimes, been a Labour city - but that changed at the 2019 general election.
Not since the Empire State Building was opened in New York in 1931 had a Conservative MP been sent to Westminster to represent this part of West Yorkshire.
In 1842, the first national trade union for miners was set up in Wakefield. Of course, looking back at the Miners' Association of Great Britain and Ireland's formation 180 years ago might not necessarily be that useful for guessing how people have voted in 2022.
However the National Coal Mining Museum is still tucked away in the bottom left corner of the Wakefield constituency. That heritage still means a great deal here.
Click here for more on Wakefield by BBC Yorkshire Political Editor James Vincent.
A busy night awaits in Devon
Andrew Segal
BBC South West
Staff and vote counters at a Devon council say they're expecting a "busy night for everyone" as they await the arrival of the first ballot boxes from the Tiverton and Honiton by-election.
Lords Meadow Leisure Centre in Crediton is the venue for Mid Devon District Council's count.
When will we get the results?
We expect to get the declaration from the Wakefield count some time after 02:00, and from Tiverton and Honiton at around 04:00 - and we will bring you snap analysis from our political correspondents and the BBC's regional political editors who are in the constituencies.
Of course, as with all elections, it’s possible the declaration times could slip, but we fully hope to get the final figures before breakfast.
Why have these by-elections been held?
Voters in Wakefield have been choosing a new representative after their Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan was jailed for 18 months having been convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. He was expelled by the Tory Party and later stood down as an MP - triggering today’s vote.
Tiverton and Honiton’s Tory MP Neil Parish resigned from Parliament in early May after admitting he had watched pornography in the House of Commons chamber twice - once by accident and the second time deliberately. He came forward after two female colleagues said they had seen a male MP looking at adult content while sitting near them.
Counting of by-election votes due to start
As we've been reporting, the polls have now closed for Westminster by-elections in Wakefield, West Yorkshire and Tiverton and Honiton in Devon, where the Conservatives are attempting to hold off challenges from Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
The polls took place in a month in which Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a confidence vote of his MPs at Westminster - 41% of whom said they no longer wanted him to be leader.
Johnson also faces a Commons inquiry over whether he knowingly misled Parliament about lockdown parties in Downing Street.
Labour are hoping to overturn a Conservative majority in Wakefield of just over 3,000, but the Liberal Democrats face a much tougher challenge in Tiverton and Honiton, where the Tories had a majority of more than 24,000 at the 2019 general election.
Johnson 'would be crazy to quit' if Tories lose both by-elections
Alex Forsyth
Travelling with the prime minister
Boris Johnson has dismissed as "crazy" suggestions that he’ll resign if he loses the by-elections in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield.
Speaking to reporters before he flew to Rwanda for the Commonwealth summit, the prime minister was asked how much responsibility he’d take if the Conservatives lost both seats.
He pointed to last year’s Tory win in the Hartlepool by-election, saying governing parties did not usually win by-elections, especially in mid-term. He has also said he'll be watching the results "with interest".
With expectation rife that losing both seats could further undermine the PM’s beleaguered leadership, the Conservatives have been careful to manage expectations ahead of tonight’s declarations.
Asked what he thought of suggestions that the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs could change party rules to engineer a second vote of confidence in his leadership, Johnson said the less you talked about Westminster issues, the more you were serving the country,
Lib Dems see 'tight' vote in Tiverton and Honiton as Tories predict 'difficult night'
Nick Eardley
Reporting from Devon
The Conservatives won Tiverton and Honiton by more than 24,000 votes in 2019 – but it’s possible that tonight they’ll lose it.
If they do, BBC analysis shows it will be the biggest majority ever overturned at a by-election. It would also be the third time in this Parliament that the Tories have lost a previously safe seat to the Liberal Democrats.
The Lib Dems have thrown everything at this constituency in the last few weeks. I’m told that today alone, they spoke to 20,000 voters here. Senior Lib Dems won’t say tonight that they are definitely going to win – a source told me things are looking “very, very tight”. But the party thinks they are in with a good chance of taking this seat in what would be a huge turnaround.
The Conservatives meanwhile are saying they expect a difficult night. Despite their majority last time, they’d be delighted at scraping by with a narrow win.
We’ll know for sure in the next few hours.
But if the Tories do lose tonight it will make many Conservative MPs extremely nervous and may lead some to think a bit more about Boris Johnson’s future.
The scene in Wakefield as polls close
Iain Watson
Reporting from Wakefield
Until the last general election, Labour had held Wakefield since 1932. But in 2019 the so-called 'Red Wall' of Leave-voting seats in the North of England and the Midlands crumbled as the Conservatives promised to 'get Brexit done.'
So, with the polls now closed in this West Yorkshire seat, tonight is an electoral test of whether party leader Sir Keir Starmer has begun - at the very least - to rebuild trust with lost voters.
For Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the result could signal whether he really did achieve a lasting political realignment at the general election - constructing a new coalition of Conservative supporters - or whether voters in what were traditionally Labour seats simply loaned his party their backing.
There are local factors at play, of course - the previous Tory MP is in prison, convicted of sexually assaulting a teenager.
But voters I've spoken to today who have abandoned the PM's party tended to mention Johnson himself as their main reason for doing so.
"I want to send a message to Boris and his cronies" as one woman, emerging from a polling station in a traditionally Tory area, put it.
Labour has to overturn a Conservative majority of more than 3,300 - and is confident of doing so.
The Conservatives here insist the result will be close, though sources at Westminster are more downbeat.
But if Labour is right, the scale of victory will be important too - so look out for the party's share of the vote. The actual majority is less important as turnout will be lower than at general elections.
Labour got just under 40% when it lost in 2019 - but polled just under 50% In 2017 and just over 40% in 2015, both times winning in Wakefield but losing nationally. So to be on course for a breakthrough across Britain, it needs to do more than just regain lost ground.
Who are the candidates?
Both seats, in West Yorkshire and Devon, were won by the Conservatives at the last general election, in 2019.
This time, voters in Honiton and Tiverton can choose from eight candidates and in Wakefield, it’s between 15.
See the full details of who is standing, here.
In pictures: Polling day
Welcome along
Good evening and welcome to our live coverage of the Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton by-elections.
People living in the two Westminster constituencies have until 22:00 BST to vote for their new MP.