Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party lost control of a previously safe parliamentary seat on Friday in a surprise election result interpreted as a voter backlash against a British leader beset by crises and scandal.

The centrist Liberal Democrats party candidate, Helen Morgan, won the North Shropshire seat by nearly 6,000 votes, overturning a 23,000 vote Conservative majority from 2019.

"Tonight, the people of North Shropshire have spoken on...