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☆ Labour opposition deals another historic blow to UK PM Rishi Sunak with by-election defeats
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Winning candidate Gen Kitchen said the result was a "stunning victory for the Labour Party and must send a message from Northamptonshire to Downing Street." LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's ruling Conservative Party suffered another double by-election defeat on Thursday, as the opposition Labour Party's momentum shows no sign of slowing. The double defeat of Thursday was the latest in a string of unfavorable by-election results for the ruling party in what were previously considered safe seats. "I was very pleased last night to see that we were clearly getting Tory switchers, in other words people who hadn't voted for the Labour Party before, coming out last night and voting for the Labour Party in a by-election." The Labour Party maintains a lead of more than 20 points over the Conservatives in all national polling, with a general election due no later than January 2025.

Persons: Kitchen, Peter Bone, —, Rishi Sunak's, Helen Harrison, Gen Kitchen, Chris Skidmore, Damien Egan, Keir Starmer, Tory switchers, hadn't, Boris Johnson, Robert Ford Organizations: Labour, Labour Party, Downing, Conservative, Conservatives, LONDON, Conservative Party, Kettering Leisure Village, Tamworth, Liberal Democrats, BBC, University of Manchester, CNBC Locations: Northamptonshire, Wellingborough , Northamptonshire, KETTERING, England, Wellingborough, Kettering, Kettering , England, Kingswood , South Gloucestershire, North, Kingswood, Mid Bedfordshire, West Midlands, Selby, Ainsty, Somerton, Frome

☆ British Prime Minister Sunak avoids wipeout in key elections
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Andrew Macaskill | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's governing Conservatives lost two strategically important parliamentary seats on Friday but unexpectedly retained Boris Johnson's old constituency in a setback for the main opposition Labour Party. The Conservatives retained Johnson's former seat by fewer than 500 votes in a huge relief for Sunak who narrowly avoided becoming the first British leader to lose three by-elections on a single day in more than half a century ago. Labour won the constituency of Selby and Ainsty from the Conservatives by 4,000 votes after an ally of Johnson resigned in solidarity. The party said overturning the majority of 20,137 from the last general election marks the biggest majority the party has overturned at a by-election since World War Two. The two main "political party leaders have been left with something to think about in the wake of these results", he said.

Persons: Rishi Sunak's, Boris Johnson's, Sunak, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Steve Tuckwell, Johnson, John Curtice, Britain's, Curtice, Andrew MacAskill, Tom Hogue, Robert Birsel Organizations: British, Conservatives, Labour Party, Conservative Party, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Conservative, Thomson Locations: Uxbridge, South Ruislip, Downing, England, Selby, Ainsty, Somerton, Frome

☆ Rishi Sunak suffers two election losses as British voters reject ailing Conservative government
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The Conservative Party lost to the resurgent Labour Party in Selby and Ainsty, a region in the north of England where the Sunak’s party had enjoyed a commanding majority. But the results indicate that the opposition Labour Party, which under the leadership of Keir Starmer is on course to clinch power when Sunak calls a general election. But in Selby, in the north of England, Labour overturned a huge deficit to win the seat with 46% of the votes, according to PA. The results amount to a significant rejection of Sunak’s Conservative Party, which has been in power for 13 years and has seen its opinion poll ratings nosedive towards the end of Johnson’s tenure, and since. Sunak will now look to steady his leadership and fight off any growing murmurs of a challenge within his party.

Persons: London CNN — Britain’s, Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson, Sunak, Keir Starmer, Liz Truss’s shambolic, Steve Tuckwell, Johnson, “, Nigel Adams, Johnson’s, ” Organizations: London CNN, Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Labour, Conservative, Britain’s Press Association, Sunak’s Conservative Party Locations: Selby, Ainsty, England, Somerton, Frome, Uxbridge, South Ruislip

Britain’s governing Conservative Party suffered crushing defeats in the race for what had been two safe seats in Parliament, but narrowly avoided losing a third contest, according to the results early Friday for by-elections viewed as a critical test of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s popularity. The main opposition Labour Party won in Selby and Ainsty, in Yorkshire in the north of England, in one of its biggest ever by-election victories, overturning a large Conservative majority and winning 16,456 votes to the Tories’ 12,295. The small, centrist, Liberal Democrats party also scored an emphatic victory in the electoral district of Somerton and Frome, in the southwest of England, another former stronghold for the Tories. The Liberal Democrats received 21,187 votes, and the Conservatives 10,790. There, the final count was 13,965 votes for Steve Tuckwell of the Conservative Party, and 13,470 for Labour’s Danny Beales.

Persons: Rishi, Sunak, Boris Johnson, Steve Tuckwell, Danny Beales Organizations: Conservative Party, Labour Party, Conservative, Tories, Liberal Democrats, Liberal, Conservatives, Labour Locations: Selby, Ainsty, Yorkshire, England, Somerton, Frome, Uxbridge, South Ruislip, London

☆ British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak braced for defeats in key elections
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Andrew Macaskill | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Sunak, a former finance minister and investment banker, has cultivated an image as a technocrat who can solve complex policy challenges. About two-thirds of voters currently have an unfavourable view of Sunak, the poll found. The betting odds suggest the Conservatives will lose all three elections, even though the party won large majorities in two of them in 2019. In Somerton and Frome in southwest England, the opposition Liberal Democrats are hoping to overturn a Conservative majority of 19,213. Asked if the prime minister was confident of winning the three seats, a spokeswoman for Sunak said by-elections were historically difficult for governments, and the contest that the Conservatives were most focused on was the general election.

Persons: Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson, Sunak, Andrew MacAskill, Elizabeth Piper, Alex Richardson Organizations: Labour, Labour Party, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Conservative, Thomson Locations: Downing, Selby, Ainsty, England, Somerton, Frome, Uxbridge, South Ruislip, London

☆ Britain’s Tories Expected to Face Election Losses - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

A recent poll shows the Labour candidate ahead in Selby and Ainsty, where in 2019 Adams won more than 60 percent of the vote. In Somerton and Frome, the candidate of the centrist Liberal Democrat Party appears to have a strong chance of prevailing. Still, there’s a broad sense that, with national elections due sometime in the next 18 months, the Conservative Party is imploding. Yet in Britain, the right appears to be approaching something like free fall, with a recent poll showing Labour with a 21-point lead nationally. Less than four years ago, the party won its fourth consecutive national election by a staggering margin, leaving Labour, then led by the leftist Jeremy Corbyn, decimated.

Persons: Adams, ”, that’s, Joshua Simons, Emmanuel Macron, Le Pen, Jeremy Corbyn, Reed Organizations: Labour, Liberal Democrat, Conservative, BBC, Conservative Party, Financial, Conservatives, Labour Party, Tories Locations: Selby, Ainsty, Somerton, Frome, Europe, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Germany, Britain, Republic

☆ 4 things 'Succession' gets wrong about business
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

HBO's hit show "Succession" airs its series finale Sunday night, with Waystar Royco's future in the balance. It captures the spirit of boardroom drama, but takes some liberties with corporate law, experts said. On HBO's hit show "Succession," the beats of a proxy fight are sometimes just as intense as a scheming betrayal from a once loyal lackey. Over four seasons, the show has laid out a thesis about the all-encompassing gravitational force of Logan Roy, the media mogul behind the fictional news and entertainment conglomerate Waystar Royco. "But the failure of the board to engage in any succession planning at all, is a first thing to note," she said.

Carl Icahn had a textbook strategy for the Nevada-based energy utility Southwest Gas Holdings. In August, Southwest Gas' board decided against a divestiture, and the sale of subsidiaries that Icahn had urged remains uncertain. "Shareholders don't want to hear it, but you really have great difficulty selling a company at a good price today," the widely followed activist investor Icahn told Insider. via CNBCBut, like Icahn in the case of Southwest Gas, participants in this new onslaught may find themselves confounded by an increasingly complex and fraught business environment. According to Lazard, 37% of activist campaigns this year were launched by first-timers, the highest proportion since the company started tracking these figures in 2015.

Carl Icahn had a textbook strategy for the Nevada-based energy utility Southwest Gas Holdings. In August, Southwest Gas' board decided against a divestiture, and the sale of subsidiaries that Icahn had urged remains uncertain. That means that the sale of companies like Southwest Gas is off the table for the time being — or will get done at prices far lower than before. via CNBCBut, like Icahn in the case of Southwest Gas, participants in this new onslaught may find themselves confounded by an increasingly complex and fraught business environment. According to Lazard, 37% of activist campaigns this year were launched by first-timers, the highest proportion since the company started tracking these figures in 2015.

☆ Corporate America is bracing for a rise in activist investing. Meet the 13 lawyers on speed-dial when companies and investors fight for boardroom control.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Law firms including Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP and Schulte Roth & Zabel are go-tos for activist investors looking to change how companies do business. Kai Liekefett, who co-chairs Sidley's shareholder activism practice, last year successfully defended cloud company Box Inc. in a proxy fight by Starboard. Liekefett has also defended clients against major activist investors including Carl Icahn and Trian Partners. He has advised clients against major activist investors including Trian, Carl Icahn, Starboard Value and the billionaire Paul Singer. Lawrence Elbaum and Patrick Gadson, Vinson & ElkinsPatrick Gadson (L) and Lawrence Elbaum (R), co-heads of Vinson & Elkins' shareholder activism group.

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