Tories Suffer English Election Defeats
It's looking like a brutal set of results for the Conservatives.
Good morning! There is still a long way to go with most English Council election results yet to be declared - but the signs are already pretty bad for Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives.
At time of writing - and I will of course follow up once all results have been declared - the Tories are already down over 200 seats.
To put that into context, the most dire expectation management briefings from the Tories pre-election was that they could face a 1,000 seat wipeout. Could that now actually happen?
So far Labour are up over 100, the LibDems around 60 plus there have been gains for the Greens and Independent candidates.
One of the most dramatic results so far has seen the Conservatives losing control of Medway Council in Kent for the first time in decades.
Addressing the Medway result specifically, Nigel Farage said this morning:
“Red Wall style voters are going back to the Labour Party.”
Unsurprisingly some Tory MPs are now panicking at the party’s dismal performance thus far and declaring it a rejection of Rishi Sunak personally.
The Conservative Democratic Organisation, who are soon to hold a conference seeking to take back control of the party, saw Chairman David Campbell Bannerman declare this morning that:
“Well the point is we should be winning seats based on disaster of 2019 not losing them. That’s how deep the hole is with Rishi.”
I found Dr. Chris Newton’s assessment of what is going on to be pretty bang on. As a former Conservative Party defence policy adviser, he said this morning:
“If you continually dick around with the leadership, have no sense of what you stand for, and offer the public no distinct vision, compelling policies, or sense of delivery, it’s not surprising the Tories are getting the results they’re getting today.
“The Tory-Red Wall coalition had so much potential, and yet the Tories are on track to throw that away along with an 80-seat Commons majority. The membership should be fuming.”
Again it is too early to assess the situation fully, but it does appear that Tory support is now being squeezed in Remain-voting areas whilst also falling in strong Brexit areas, with many Leavers clearly disappointed with the Government’s performance.
When it comes to Reform UK there doesn’t seem to have been a breakthrough yet. In Sunderland they seem to have performed okay, including coming second to Labour in one seat.
But if the early results we have seen so far are representative of what else is to come today, it will massively increase the pressure on Sunak.
The Brexiteer voting coalition that backed Boris Johnson’s party in 2019 seems to have splintered completely.
What we are seeing now is the legacy of a Government that talks tough - but isn’t really delivering action.
If they carry on this way then a Tory victory looks highly unlikely at next year’s General Election.
The most insulting comment from these numpties "lessons will be learnt". How long have they been learning? PERHAPS they qualify as "Special needs".
Don't p-ss on my back and tell me its raining.
Panic? The Tories have had some years to panic. It's positive action that's required, if they don't realise that, then they're quite Daft' It used to be said in the military that 'panic' was a waste of good emotion' while positive action very often does the job!