By election results live: Sunak warned Tories set to lose ‘hell of a lot of seats’

Sir Keir Starmer has labelled a Government minister a “silly sod” who will “soon be history”, after Johnny Mercer compared the party’s new 25-year-old MP to a character from cult Channel 4 comedy The Inbetweeners.

The minister for Veterans’ Affairs said Keir Mather had been “dropped into” the Selby and Ainsty constituency and “spouted identikit Keir Starmer lines”, after earlier stating: “We don’t want Parliament to become like The Inbetweeners.”

The Labour leader hit back at Mr Mercer in Selby on Friday, as he celebrated the by-election victory alongside Mr Mather and deputy leader Angela Rayner.

Strolling along the pitch at Selby Town Football Club and surrounded by media, Sir Keir told the new MP: “There was some silly sod on the radio, on the television last night saying you were only 25.

The comments were picked up by an ITV camera crew and Sir Keir can be heard saying: “But the answer is, you’re 25 and you’ve made history and he’s whatever age he is and he’ll soon be history.”

Mr Mather will become the youngest MP in the Commons – the Baby of the House – after overturning a 20,137 Conservative majority to win the North Yorkshire seat for Labour.

The Inbetweeners, which aired in the late 2000s, follows four friends at school who end up in awkward and embarrassing situations as they try to enter adulthood.

Explaining his comments to Sky News on Friday, Mr Mercer said: “I think this synthetic outrage, identikit Labour politician is the opposite of what people like me came into politics for.

“He’s been at Oxford University more than he’s had a job, right? So if you can really apply that to the empathy required to understand what it’s really like in this country at the moment, in terms of the cost of living and all these experiences of these people he’s trying to represent.

“Personally, I don’t think that is conducive to good electoral representation and I’m more than entitled to have that view.”

Watch live as Canada’s deputy PM Chrystia Freeland speaks at Aspen Security Forum.

It is a net loss of two seats for the Conservative Party after Thursday’s by-elections but the Tories did unexpectedly manage to hang on to Uxbridge and West Ruislip.

It now means the make up is:

– Liberal Democrat: 15 +1

– Sinn Fein: 7 – although the MPs do not take their seats in Parliament

The accommodation barge will house up to 500 asylum seekers and is not a prison but does impose restrictions on how guests can come and go.

Calculations by The Independent show that, at full capacity, each asylum seeker will have less living space than an average car parking bay, even when taking shared spaces and outdoor courtyards into account.

The Liberal Democrats won the seat of Somerton and Frome in the by-election.

The party tweeted: “A huge congratulations and warm welcome to our 15th and newest MP, @SarahDykeLD.

“We know you’ll be a fantastic champion for Somerton and Frome.”

Boris Johnson will hand over messages from his old mobile phone to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry after technical experts managed to recover them, his spokesman has said.

The apparent breakthrough announced on Friday came after he was told to stop using the device over security concerns after it emerged his number had been online for years.

He then reportedly forgot the passcode.

But his spokesman said that the former prime minister was “pleased that technical experts have now successfully recovered all relevant messages from the device”.

“As repeatedly stated, he will now deliver this material in unredacted form to the inquiry,” he added in a statement.

“The inquiry process requires that a security check of this material is now made by the Cabinet Office. The timing of any further progress on delivery to the inquiry is therefore under the Cabinet Office’s control.

A senior Tory MP told The Independent: “People are p****d off with us – no doubt about it, but there’s no real appetite for Labour.

“Tony Blair would have won Uxbridge, given the state of the economy. If the general election was held in a month’s time, Labour would win easily. But in six months, if the economy recovers a bit, who knows?”

Technical experts have recovered all relevant messages from Boris Johnson’s old phone that he had been advised not to use on security grounds and he will hand them over “unredacted” to the coronavirus inquiry, a spokesman for the ex-prime minister has said.

Boris Johnson’s spokesman said: “Boris Johnson is pleased that technical experts have now successfully recovered all relevant messages from the device. As repeatedly stated, he will now deliver this material in unredacted form to the inquiry.

“The inquiry process requires that a security check of this material is now made by the Cabinet Office. The timing of any further progress on delivery to the inquiry is therefore under the Cabinet Office’s control.

“It was always the case that Boris Johnson would pass this material to the inquiry and do everything possible to help it be recovered. A careful process approved by the Inquiry has been followed to ensure that this was successful.”

Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and West Ruislip was won by the Conservative Party after the former prime minister stepped down.

Sir Keir Starmer is celebrating Labour’s success with a tweet from Selby Town Football Club.

His party won their biggest ever by-election overturn in the constituency on Thursday.

Sir Keir wrote: “Labour has made history in Selby and Ainsty.

“We will work hard to earn every vote to win the next general election and change our country for the better.”