Rish Sunak warned as Tories plummet in by-elections
Rishi Sunak has been warned by Tory rebels that he faces a ‘war of attrition’ with MPs looking to unseat him after the Conservatives lost two more by-elections.
Rishi Sunak has been warned by Tory rebels that he faces a “war of attrition” with MPs looking to unseat him after the Conservatives lost two more by-elections in seats once considered safe.
Labour overturned a Tory majority in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, with the party’s share of the vote falling 38 percentage points from 2019 – one of the Conservative Party’s worst by-election performances.
In Kingswood on the outskirts of Bristol, which Labour also took, Conservative support was down 21 points.
The results mean the Tories have suffered a net loss of eight seats in this parliament, the highest figure since John Major’s beleaguered government lost that many between 1992 and 1997.
The Prime Minister said the contests had been held in “particularly challenging” circumstances and insisted he could still turn around the party’s fortunes. But his critics on the right said the results underlined why the party had to “change course”.
One said Mr Sunak faced a “war of attrition” in the lead-up to local election results in May, with up to 20 MPs said to be convinced that the party would be better off under another leader.
“No one thinks the budget is going to change anything, he is going to face huge challenges getting planes off the ground to Rwanda and the local elections are going to be disastrous,” they said. “It’s going to be a war of attrition, but things aren’t going to get any better for him.”
But senior Tory strategists said that although the results were disappointing, there was some evidence that the party’s electoral strategy was working.
“The vast majority of our 2019 voters have not crossed over to Labour and when it comes to the election it won’t be a protest vote; it will be, who do you want in Downing Street for the next five years?” they said.
Mr Sunak said he believed that the improving economic situation would eventually help to convince voters to support him.
“We’ve clearly been through a lot over the past couple of years as a country, but I genuinely believe at the start of this year we’re pointing in the right direction,” he said. “We’re not out of the woods yet, but across all the priorities we’re making progress.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer said his party had more work to do, but its by-election victories showed people were crying out for change.
New Conservatives group co-leaders Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates told Mr Sunak the party had “not delivered on the promises we made at the last election” and needed to go further.
They repeated their calls for Mr Sunak to back withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights, to facilitate the removal of illegal migrants. They also called for further welfare reform to “support” the nine million who are not working into employment with the money reinvested in prisons and defence.
“The results in yesterday’s by-elections are unequivocal,” they said. “There is still time, but our party must change course.
“We are calling on the government to adapt to the reality that the by-elections reveal.
“Our target voters want a different and a better offer.”
The Times
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