If the Conservatives are beaten at the polls in both Mid-Bedfordshire and Tamworth on Thursday, it would mean 10 seats have changed hands at parliamentary by-elections in the past three years - eight of them being defeats for the Government.This is a level of churn not seen since the 1990s, when John Major was prime minister and the Tories had clocked up almost 18 years in power at Westminster.

If the Conservatives are beaten at the polls in both Mid-Bedfordshire and Tamworth on Thursday, it would mean 10 seats have changed hands at parliamentary by-elections in the past three years - eight of them being defeats for the Government.This is a level of churn not seen since the 1990s, when John Major was prime minister and the Tories had clocked up almost 18 years in power at Westminster.