I’m sorry, May tells Tories
PM apologises for calling snap election as review highlights 126 campaign failings
‘Learn lessons about the approach’
THERESA May finally offered a full apology for the snap general election yesterday, telling party members: ‘I am sorry.’ As the party conference in Manchester began, the Prime Minister admitted she had been responsible for losing the Conservative majority.
The Tories published an election review by Sir Eric Pickles that set out 126 failings – including that manifestos should not be ‘written quietly in the corner’.
Former communities secretary Sir Eric said the leader should be banned from writing the policy programme alone.
The Tories also faced warnings over declining membership as it was revealed at least one in five supporters has deserted the party in just four years.
As she turned 61, Mrs May, who was suffering tryinga heavyto win cold, back spent supportyesterday from the party faithful.
At a closed meeting, she told members she knew how hard it was to knock on doors in the rain.
And she admitted she had failed to get the party’s message across in the campaign.
‘I want first of all to say a huge thank you to all of you and your teams, but I also want to say this: I called the election, I led the campaign and I am responsible,’ Mrs May said.
‘I accept my responsibility and I
am sorry that the result was not what we wanted. I’m sorry that we lost many good parliamentary colleagues. And really good candidates that we’d hoped to see in Parliament, I’m sorry that they didn’t make it either.’ The PM pledged to ‘learn the lessons about the approach we took and the message we gave’. She added: ‘When I first became Prime Minister and stood outside No 10, I set out my mission for the government that I was leading, encapsulated in that phrase about a country that works for everyone. That had a huge resonance with people and that didn’t come across – that message didn’t come across sufficiently during the campaign.’
Sir Eric’s review also called for changes to attract more young people and ethnic minorities to the Conservatives.
First Secretary of State Damian Green yesterday revealed mem- bership was at ‘about 120,000’, suggesting it has fallen by a fifth since figures were last published in 2013, when it was at 149,800.
John Strafford, of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy, said it was an ‘utter total disgrace’ that party membership had been allowed to decline, while Labour’s has surpassed 600,000.
‘ Eventually, there will be no members left and that will be the end, goodbye,’ he told a fringe event hosted by the Conservative Home website.
The recommendation on manifestos follows reports that Mrs May and her advisers did not properly consult the Cabinet over key elements of 2017’s election pledges – including changes to social care dubbed the ‘dementia tax’ by critics. Sir Eric said a committee including senior ministers should write the document instead.
Former MP Edwina Currie also criticised the way campaigning had been organised, saying errors meant that ‘blithering idiots’ from party HQ sent her and fellow canvassers to areas full of homes with Labour posters in their windows.