The UK’s governing Conservatives are braced for a drubbing from voters in 3 special elections

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Voters are going to the polls in three electoral districts of England, with the governing Conservative Party braced for a drubbing over a cost-of-living crisis and a morale-sapping string of political scandals. The elections for House of Commons seats are being closely watched because they let voters in three distinct areas deliver a verdict on the party that has governed Britain since 2010. The elections are in small-town northern England, rural southwest England and the suburban London seat previously held by ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. A trio of Conservative defeats would increase grumbles that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is failing to turn the party’s fortunes around. He acknowledged that the three byelections would be a “tough battle.”