PM denies Tories are neglecting heartlands for new northern seats after by-election loss
Boris Johnson has denied his Conservative Party are neglecting southern parts of England in favour of its new northern seats as he blamed “particular circumstances” for a surprise by-election loss.
The Tories have been dealt a humiliating defeat after the Liberal Democrats won Thursday’s Chesham and Amersham by-election.
The Buckinghamshire constituency had been a Conservative stronghold since its creation in 1974 – but the Lib Dems overturned the Tories’ 16,000-vote majority to deliver a shock result.
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Davey takes hammer to ‘Tory blue wall’
The prime minister admitted his party had suffered what was “certainly a disappointing result”, but he pointed to “particular circumstances” in the constituency.
He also dismissed “peculiar” and “bizarre” suggestions that Conservative victories in Labour’s former “red wall” heartlands in the Midlands and the north at the last general election had seen the Tories lose their focus on their own traditional strongholds.
“We are getting on with delivering our agenda for the whole country, that’s what one nation Conservatism is all about,” Mr Johnson said.
“We believe in uniting and levelling up within regions and across the country.”
The prime minister also pointed to his own previous election as London mayor on two occasions, his past election as an MP for Henley, as well as last month’s council election successes for the Tories.
“Just last month we had gains in Basildon and Maidstone and Basingstoke and all over the place,” he added.
“We are a great one nation party and we will continue with our mission to unite and level up, because that is the best way to deliver jobs and prosperity across the whole country.”
Some Tories have blamed the Chesham defeat on the government’s proposed reforms of planning rules.
But Mr Johnson said there had been “some misunderstanding about the planning reforms, perhaps even some wilful misunderstanding on behalf of our opponents”.
“What we want are sensible plans to allow development on brownfield sites, we’re not going to build on greenbelt sites, we’re not going to build all over the countryside,” he added.
“But I do think that young people growing up in this country should have the chance of home ownership and that’s what we’re focusing on.”
The Chesham and Amersham contest was triggered by the death of former Tory cabinet minister Dame Cheryl Gillan.
The constituency will now be represented by victorious Lib Dem candidate Sarah Green.
The Lib Dems’ new MP for Chesham and Amersham, Sarah Green, and party leader Sir Ed Davey
The 25-point swing from the Conservatives to the Lib Dems was the third-highest since two by-elections in 1993.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told Sky News the result would “send shockwaves through the British political system”.
“This Liberal Democrat victory was one of our best ever by-election victories,” he said.
“And, if it was repeated across the south of England, literally dozens of Conservative MPs would lose their seats to the Liberal Democrats.”
The result has also brought fresh scrutiny of the performance of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who saw his party gain the smallest share of the vote (1.6%) in any by-election since the Second World War.
Labour came fourth in the by-election with just 622 votes – trailing the third-placed Green Party – and losing the party’s deposit in the process.
Last month, Sir Keir saw his party lose the Hartlepool by-election to the Conservatives – a seat that had been under Labour’s control since it was created in the 1970s.
Taiwanese lawmaker Ko Ju-Chun has called on the government to consider adding Bitcoin to its national reserves, suggesting it could serve as a hedge against global economic uncertainty.
Ko, a legislator at-large in Taiwan’s legislative body, the Legislative Yuan, took to X on Friday to report that he had advocated Bitcoin (BTC) investment by the Taiwanese government at the National Conference on May 9.
In his remarks, Ko cited Bitcoin’s potential to become a hedge amid global economic risks and urged Taiwan to recognize the cryptocurrency alongside gold and foreign exchange reserves to boost its financial resilience.
Ko’s announcement came shortly after the legislator held talks with Samson Mow, who advocates for Bitcoin adoption by states like El Salvador at his BTC tech firm Jan3.
Taiwan is an export-oriented economy
Ko highlighted that Taiwan is an export-driven economy that has experienced significant fluctuations in its national currency, the New Taiwan dollar, amid global inflation and intensifying geopolitical risks.
“We currently have a gold reserve of 423 metric tons, and our foreign exchange reserves amount to $577 billion, including investments in US Treasury bonds,” the lawmaker stated.
In a scenario of more intense currency volatility or potential regional conflicts, Taiwan may “very likely be unable to ensure the security and liquidity,” Ko continued, adding that Bitcoin could be a great addition to Taiwan’s reserves for several reasons.
“Bitcoin has been operating for over 15 years. It has a fixed total supply, is decentralized, and is resistant to censorship. Many countries are focusing on its hedging attributes. At the same time, in intense situations, it may not face the risk of embargo,” he said.
Bitcoin is not the only solution
Referring to many global initiatives considering Bitcoin adoption as a reserve asset, Ko stressed that he’s not advocating for Bitcoin as the “only solution” to rising economic challenges.
Instead, the legislator suggested adding a “small proportion of Bitcoin” into the diversified assets as tools for sovereign asset allocation and risk hedging, and backup capacity of Taiwan’s financial system.
Related: Trump tricked into pushing XRP for crypto reserve: Report
He previously suggested that Taiwan could allocate a maximum of 5% of its $50 billion reserve to Bitcoin in an X post on May 6.
“When exchange rate risk and regional uncertainty increase, it is time to introduce new tools to construct a more flexible financial strategy framework,” Ko said, adding:
“As former Dean Chen Chong said, Bitcoin is the gun of the digital era. It may also be the gold of the digital era, the silver of the digital era. Or it could be gunpowder. A wise nation will not let weapons be in others’ hands.”
The news comes as Taiwan is emerging as a crypto-friendly jurisdiction, with the Financial Supervisory Commission pushing institutional trials of crypto custody services in late 2024.
Mainland China continues to maintain its hostile stance on cryptocurrency after imposing a ban on multiple crypto activities, including mining, in 2021.
Magazine: Adam Back says Bitcoin price cycle ’10x bigger’ but will still decisively break above $100K
German law enforcement seized 34 million euros ($38 million) in cryptocurrency from eXch, a cryptocurrency platform allegedly used to launder funds stolen after Bybit’s record-breaking $1.4 billion hack.
The seizure, announced on May 9 by Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and Frankfurt’s main prosecutor’s office, involved multiple crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Dash (DASH). The move marks the third-largest crypto confiscation in the BKA’s history.
The authorities also seized eXch’s German server infrastructure with over eight terabytes of data and shut down the platform, the announcement added.
eXch exchanged crypto without AML
In the statement, the BKA described eXch as a “swapping” service that allowed users to exchange various crypto assets without implementing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures.
The platform had operated since 2014 and reportedly facilitated about $1.9 billion in crypto transfers, some of which were believed to be of “criminal origin,” including assets laundered during the Bybit hack.
“Among other things, a portion of the $1.5 billion stolen from the Bybit crypto exchange, which was hacked on Feb. 21, 2025, is said to have been exchanged via eXch,” the authorities wrote.
Multisig, FixedFloat among laundering cases
According to a post by crypto sleuth ZachXBT, eXch was also involved in laundering millions of funds from other crypto thefts and exploits, including Multisig, FixedFloat and the $243 million Genesis creditor theft.
Those were in addition to “countless phishing drainer services over the past few years with refusal to block addresses and freeze orders,” ZachXBT said.
ZachXBT was among the first security analysts to report on eXch’s links to laundering $35 million of crypto assets stolen from Bybit soon after the hack was confirmed.
Related: Hacken CEO sees ‘no shift’ in crypto security as April hacks hit $357M
“Lazarus Group transferred 5K ETH from the Bybit Hack to a new address and began laundering funds via eXch (a centralized mixer) and bridging funds to Bitcoin via Chainflip,” ZachXBT wrote in a Telegram post on Feb. 22.
eXch announced termination of services by May 1
After initially denying involvement in laundering funds from the Bybit hack, eXch eventually announced it would cease operations by May 1 in a Bitcoin Talk post published in mid-April.
“Even though we have been able to operate despite some failed attempts to shut down our infrastructure […], we don’t see any point in operating in a hostile environment where we are the target of SIGINT [Signals Intelligence] simply because some people misinterpret our goals,” it wrote.
Addressing the seizure, senior public prosecutor Benjamin Krause stressed the importance of action against “quick and anonymous opportunities for money laundering for any amount.”
“Crypto swapping is an essential component of the underground economy, used to conceal incriminated funds from illegal activities such as hacking or trading in stolen payment card data, thus making them available to perpetrators,” he said.
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