Hammond: Tories could ‘take a pasting’ at general election

THE Conservatives will probably “take a pasting” at the general election, the Tory former chancellor Lord Hammond has said.

According to recent polls, Labour are on course for a landslide victory at the next election. But Lord Hammond, who led the Treasury between 2016 and 2019, said that tough times were ahead.

“I think the formidable problem is for our democratic politics because I can easily envisage, and the polls are certainly suggesting, that the Conservative Party will take a pasting at the next election,” he told BBC Radio 4.

Lord Hammond also said that neither Labour nor the Conservatives are being honest about the state of the public finances because they are scared of losing votes. He insisted that “what would you cut?” was the most important question to ask political leaders in the run up to the general election.

He also suggested that long-term reform was so difficult because voters wanted to hear “more palatable” arguments and politicians were scared of being kicked out at the next poll.

It comes after Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, warned that “for all the cash” funnelled into the NHS, too many patients were still unable to see their GP, and called on the Government to save money by integrating health and social care. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s The Today Podcast, Lord Hammond said: “What would you cut? That’s the question to ask any politician – what would you cut?

“And the politician who tells you we don’t need to cut anything, we’re just going to do it by collecting a bit more of the tax that’s due, making our public services a bit more efficient, I’m afraid is not being honest and frank with you.”

Asked by Nick Robinson whether he thought Labour or the Conservatives were being “open enough” with the public, Lord Hammond replied: “We have a problem in this country. The electorate is not really willing to engage with this argument.

“It’s very difficult to ask politicians to present the electorate with choices and challenges which are so stark that their reaction is: ‘I’ll vote for somebody who offers me a more palatable option.’ And unfortunately that’s the challenge of democracy.

“How do you get big, difficult longterm decisions made in a world where the politicians who are making them have to put themselves up for election every four or five years?”

Public spending currently accounts for more than 40 per cent of Britain’s GDP and Rishi Sunak has faced repeated calls from Tory backbenchers to slash state spending. A seat-by-seat Yougov poll last week predicted that the Conservatives are on course to suffer their worst general election wipeout on record, with Labour projected to secure a majority of more than 150 seats.