Western Daily Press (Saturday)
‘Reform UK is biggest challenge to Tories’
SIR Jacob Rees-Mogg said that the votes gained by Reform UK hit the Conservatives’ chances of retaining Kingswood.
Speaking to reporters after the result was announced, the MP for North East Somerset said there was “a lot of work to do” and they needed to be “very sensitive” to what voters had to say.
He said the result was “better than I’d anticipated”, and praised Mr Bromiley as an “excellent candidate” and a “good local man”.
He also defended the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying: “I think Rishi Sunak is a very capable, intelligent man who is working hard against great difficulties. We had to spend £400 billion to get us through Covid and that has left some bills to be paid.
“There was also the issue of inflation that came partly out of Covid, partly out of mistakes by the Bank of England. That has to be worked through as well, but he’s doing that in a rational and sensible way. “
He said the result was “significant” for Reform UK, the party led by Richard Tice, which came third with 2,578 votes, more than Labour’s majority.
“If those voters had voted Conservative, the Conservatives would’ve won. The challenge to the Conservative Party is how do we appeal to them to sway them. That means having policies that Conservatives have always been very comfortable with. It means lower taxation, less regulation, the benefits of Brexit, all of those things that will appeal to Reform UK voters.
“If you look at the vote that went to Reform, it seems to me that we need to be pulling those voters back by doing things that they would like.
“Reform is very much more a threat to the Conservatives than Labour because more people are switching from Conservative to Reform than are switching from Conservative to Labour.
“We’re unlikely to win many Labour voters over. We’re not going to win over the Greens. But Reform and the Conservatives have a lot of values in common.”