Is time now running out for Tory Party?
We’re just not winning back voters, moan anxious MPs
SENIOR Tories are growing ever more fearful about the party’s failure to win back voters after a significant drop in support in Thursday’s by-election.
Labour comfortably won the West Lancashire vote, with charity worker Ashley Dalton securing a majority of 8,326 over Tory Mike Prendergast – a 10 per cent swing to Labour since the last election.
Former ministers believe Rishi Sunak’s Government is running out of time to deliver on its pledges, including the key issue of stopping illegal Channel migrant crossings.
Many believe Tory MPs should not have forced Boris Johnson to quit as prime minister as the party has fallen further behind Labour in opinion polls since he left. A growing number are standing down and many warn of a wipeout.
Those left are braced for fresh losses at council elections in May, with modelling showing the Tories could lose more than 200 seats in the Commons at the next general election expected in 18 months.
The West Lancashire result, albeit on a
‘When is Boris coming back?’
turnout of less than 32 per cent, gave the Tories their worst result in the constituency since it was formed, with their vote share plunging to just 25 per cent.
A polling model by Britain Elects said a similar swing on a nationwide level at the next election would mean a Labour landslide, with the party on 424 seats and the Tories on just 138.
Another survey, by People Polling, put Labour on a 50 per cent vote share, with the Tories on just 21 per cent.
Polling experts say the Conservatives are facing a wipeout on the scale of the 1997 election defeat they suffered at the hands of Tony Blair’s New Labour.
Professor Matt Goodwin told GB News: ‘If I was in Rishi Sunak’s team, I’d be pretty worried.’
Professor Sir John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, told the Independent: ‘Given the unprecedented scale of the fall in Tory support, nobody can be sure what the outcome in seats would be if the current polls were reflected in the ballot boxes.’
Tory peer Lord Cruddas told his colleagues yesterday: ‘Unless we act, we are heading for a general election meltdown.’
His warning echoed former Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries. She said the Tories’ poll standing ‘could be described as terminal’, adding that it had been ‘sheer stupidity’ to ditch Mr Johnson.
A senior party figure told the Mail Mr Johnson’s name was repeatedly raised on the doorstep, with voters asking ‘When is he coming back?’.
Many Tory MPs are pinning hopes for a revival on the new PM’s determination to stop the small-boat Channel crossings.
But a long-awaited Bill on the problem is not expected for at least two weeks.
Others are agitating for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to announce tax cuts in next month’s Budget, and for the Government to deliver on the benefits of Brexit.
A Government source said: ‘We are focused on delivering the priorities of the British people, including halving inflation, reducing debt, growing the economy, cutting waiting lists and stopping the boats – not on polls.’