Spread of Tory losses leads former minister to say there’s ‘no such thing as a safe seat any more’

Spread of Tory losses leads former minister to say there’s ‘no such thing as a safe seat any more’

The Conservatives are facing one of their worst local election results in 40 years, with striking Labour gains across England and Wales in key battlegrounds they need to secure victory at the general election.

The spread of the Conservative losses led one former minister to claim there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more”, but the prime minister appeared committed to clinging on until polling day, with rebels in his own party lacking the support to oust him.

The polling expert Prof John Curtice of Strathclyde University said the results added up to “one of the worst, if not the worst” performances by the Conservatives in four decades.

The party is expected to lose up to 500 seats when all votes are counted, with Labour advancing in areas of both the “red wall” north won by the Tories under Boris Johnson and the traditional southern Conservative heartlands.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    8·
    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    The party is expected to lose up to 500 seats when all votes are counted, with Labour advancing in areas of both the “red wall” north won by the Tories under Boris Johnson and the traditional southern Conservative heartlands.

    Labour also ousted a number of Tory police and crime commissioners, and took control of at least seven new councils, including in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire and Sussex in the south of England.

    Despite heavy losses for the government, the Conservatives pointed to pockets of success such as the Tory mayor Ben Houchen holding on in Tees Valley, and Andy Street likely to keep his mayoralty in the West Midlands on Saturday.

    He accused Labour of trying to “stroll back in” to Tees Valley and said he was sure that the region’s voters would stick with the Tories at a general election – despite a swing in the mayoralty suggesting the opposition would have won all parliamentary seats in the area.

    Kwasi Kwarteng, the Conservative MP and former chancellor, told LBC that there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more” but he also said it was not the right time to change leader as “stability and consolidation” were needed.

    Andrea Jenkyns, the only Conservative MP who has publicly acknowledged sending a letter of no confidence in Sunak, instead called for a “war reshuffle” to bring back former ministers Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

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