By-election results are a wake up call for both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer

VOTERS gave Tories a kicking in Selby and Somerset because they are fed up with a bickering government after 13 years.

And they gave Labour a bloody nose in Uxbridge for punishing poor motorists with old cars.

This was a wake-up call for both parties.

Flip-flopping Sir Keir Starmer must stop treating voters like fools — and Rishi needs to offer proper Conservative policies.

With Lib Dems and Greens performing well, Starmer still has to prove that voters can trust him.

Nor will they support the Tories without good reason. It’s not just about taxes and inflation, important as they are.

The lesson from Uxbridge — and from Nigel Farage’s battle with Coutts Bank — is that people are sick of having barmy woke policies rammed down their throats.

They fume at schools secretly helping kids change gender.

They hate Just Stop Oil idiots.

Drivers resent being hammered by greedy councils.

They rage against absurd green deadlines for Net Zero.

Rishi could stop these and many other woke issues at the stroke of a pen.

And, dare I say it, the smack of firm government.