UK

Tories’ worst local election results in decades open up fresh row in the party over its future

Britain PM Rishi Sunak’s position appears safe but recriminations in air as party hammered in local and mayoral elections

Former home secretary Suella Braverman on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: She urged prime minister Rishi Sunak to 'Reflect on what the voters are telling us and change the plan.' Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA

Mark Paul
Sun May 5 2024 - 15:18

The Conservative Party’s hammering in local elections in England has opened up a fresh row in the party over its future political direction, with some arguing for it to move even further to the right to win back voters, while others say it must tack towards the moderate centre.

Suella Braverman, the former home secretary and right-wing firebrand who was sacked last year by UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, on Sunday urged him to “change course” and shift the Tories to the right in advance of the general election later this year.

“Reflect on what the voters are telling us and change the plan,” she told BBC on Sunday.

Ms Braverman’s prescription for change included a cap on legal migration to Britain, which has spiralled to record levels since Brexit, and for the UK to quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent its court from interfering in migration law.

READ MORE

She also called on the prime minister to “fix this transgender ideology in schools” and to cut taxes “in a way that people will feel, not tweaking around the edges”. Ms Braverman said she now regretted backing Mr Sunak to become prime minister in October 2022, when he replaced Liz Truss.

[ 'Admit you've failed': successful Labour election candidate sends message to Sunak ]

However, moderates within the party warned against any further “drift to the right”.

“I would definitely not advise that drift,” said Andy Street, the two-term mayor of the West Midlands area that includes Birmingham. He was beaten in his bid for a third term by Labour’s Richard Parker by a wafer-thin margin of 1,500 votes, in a dramatic result that became clear late on Saturday.

“The thing everyone should take from Birmingham in the West Midlands is [my] brand of moderate, inclusive, tolerant conservatism that gets on and delivers has come within an ace of beating the Labour Party in what they considered to be their backyard,” Mr Street told Sky News.

“The message is clear: winning from that centre ground is what happens,” he said.

Victory by Ben Houchen, the Conservative Party mayor of the Tees Valley area around Middlesbrough, was the only bright spot for the Conservatives in an otherwise dire weekend of results. Even then, there was a swing to Labour in Tees Valley of 19 percentage points.

In London, Sadiq Khan polled more than one million votes as he beat Conservative challenger Susan Hall by an 11 per cent margin in a bitter and divisive contest marked by personal attacks over race and religion. Recriminations have begun in the Tory party over the selection as a candidate of Ms Hall, whose campaign flirted with people engaged in racially charged online abuse of Mr Khan.

[ English local elections show Labour’s poll lead is bang on ]

Late on Friday evening, before counting had started on Saturday in the London race, Tory strategists briefed that they believed Ms Hall could confound polls and pull off a shock defeat of Mr Khan, who faced criticism from Tories for widening London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) scheme of environmental charges against motorists who drive older vehicles. In the end, the issue did register at the polls, as he appealed to Green Party members to “lend” him their votes to defeat Ms Hall, who promised to scrap Ulez.

The Tory party lost more than 470 councillors – half its cohort up for election – over the weekend in its worst set of local election results in about four decades. Labour made significant headway, although some of its gains were muted by a noticeable drop-off in support in areas with a high proportions of Muslim voters, who were angry with the party’s stance on the conflict in Israel and Gaza.

[ Sadiq Khan elected London mayor for third term in further boost for Labour ]

Despite Tory angst, chances of a heave against Mr Sunak before the next general election appeared to have receded. Meanwhile, many election pundits suggested that even though Labour had failed to hit the heights some in the party hoped for, it had won big enough in the right places to suggest its leader, Keir Starmer, is well on course to enter Downing Street.

Mark Paul

Mark Paul

Mark Paul is London Correspondent for The Irish Times

LATEST STORIES