THE leader of the Conservative party in Wales has urged Boris Johnson to “look in the mirror”, after the party endured a torrid time at the polls.

Two Conservative seats in Westminster were lost overnight, as the party was defeated in by-elections in both Wakefield in the north, along with Tiverton and Honiton in the south west of England.

With the Liberal Democrats taking Tiverton and Honiton for the first time, and Labour regaining Wakefield, the Conservatives have today found themselves trying to piece together the reasons why voters opted for alternatives.

One popular theory is that the recent actions of prime minister Boris Johnson has been a factor, with the Partygate scandal having dominated the headlines in recent days.

In the aftermath of the double defeat, Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden has tendered his resignation, telling Mr Johnson that “we cannot carry on with business as usual.”

While the leader of the party in Wales, Andrew RT Davies, hasn’t been quite as strong in his response, the member of the Senedd was nonetheless critical of Mr Johnson.

What has been said about Boris Johnson by Andrew RT Davies?

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales in the hours after the two by-election results were returned, Mr Davies said that voters chose to “send a message to Westminster” in the by-elections.

He said: “It’s a difficult night last night to say the least. Governments do face these troubles at mid-term points but they were exacerbated last night obviously by issues that have been happening in Westminster over the last eight to 10 months.

“That was very much on the doorstep relayed to me because I went down twice to help out our candidate.

“But ultimately, obviously, the voters chose to send a message to Westminster.”

Continuing, he told the programme: “Each and every day the prime minister gets up, like any leader, they have to look in the mirror and ask themselves ‘can they continue to deliver for their country and for the people who have put them into office?’

“I presume that’s getting far more challenging when the prime minister looked in the mirror these days with the messages that are coming from the ballot box such as by-elections we had last night.”