TRIPLE TORY BLOW

30% SWING TO LIB DEMS IN TIVERTON. KEY RED WALL SEAT FALLS TO LABOUR. TORY CHAIRMAN RESIGNS AT DAWN

- Nicholas Cecil and David Bond

THE Tory party chairman resigned today after it suffered two damaging by-election defeats.

In a bombshell resignation letter, Oliver Dowden stressed that "somebody must take responsibility" for losing Wakefield in the "Red Wall" to Labour and the former Conservative stronghold of Tiverton and Honiton in Devon to the Liberal Democrats.

Election experts said the dramatic swing of almost 30 per cent from the Tories to the Lib Dems in the West Country seat was the worst Conservative performance since the Second World War in terms of the percentage majority lost. Boris Johnson, who is attending the Commonwealth summit in Rwanda, responded to the double by-election defeats by saying he would "listen" to voters but would "keep going".

He admitted: "It's absolutely true we've had some tough by-election results. They've been, I think, a reflection of a lot of things, but we've got to recognise voters are going through a tough time at the moment."

He added: "We're now facing pressures on the cost of living, we're seeing spikes in fuel prices, energy costs, food costs - that's hitting people. We've got to recognise there is more we've got to do and we certainly will."

In his resignation letter, Mr Dowden emphasised that he remained "loyal to the Conservative party" and added that his resignation was a "deeply personal decision that I have taken alone". Mr Johnson is understood to have received the news shortly after he had finished a dip in his hotel pool in the Rwandan capital Kigali at 6am. The Prime Minister was surprised to receive the call from Mr Dowden warning him that he was about to resign, according to a Tory source.