Voters see Keir as all criticism and no answers

MID-TERM elections are a hazard every Government has to face and Boris Johnson is no exception.

Last week’s visit to the polls was, historically, nothing exceptional.

Turnout, as per usual, was relatively poor in relation to the 2019 Parliamentary poll, and although the Tories took quite a knock, Labour did not fare spectacularly well – not gaining votes to give them belief they could actually win a general election.

The real winners where the Lib Dems under their new leader, Sir Ed Davey. Here again though, their share of the vote was not much different than previous upswings and most probably down to protest votes.

Over the last few days, I have been listening to the comments of a cross-section of the electorate. Some have changed sides, and yes, some directly down to “partygate”.

Then there are those that have moved to either Labour or Lib Dems over broken election pledges, especially pensioners, who lost out financially.

However, the overwhelming number of comments were criticisms of the way in which Sir Keir Starmer constantly condemns Government without outlining an alternative strategy.

In a way, the views of the people that I listened to was reflected by the distribution of votes, with all the experienced political pundits taking the view that current support would not give Labour an overall majority.

So, what of the period running up to the next general election?

I learned that there was a fairly widely held view that there is no obvious successor in Cabinet to take the PM’s place. This implies that the Tories’ next leader will have to come from the backbenches. Now that really opens up the field.

Two names cropped up in the course of conversations. One, Tom Tugendhat, MP for Tonbridge and Malling, 49 next month and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

The other was 55-year-old Tobias Ellwood, MP for Bournemouth East. Both are great communicators and have, as far as I am aware, clean hands in relation to political scandal.

If the awaited Sue Grey report goes badly for Boris, then watch out for the above.