Senior Tories Admit Things ‘Could Get Worse’ For Party Before They Get Better
The Tory party suffered its worst election defeat ever last month, but some fear it could still get worse (Alamy)
3 min read
The Conservatives must “not accept that this is as low as it gets” despite slumping to its worst election result ever last month, according to two senior party figures.
Both Andrew Bowie, shadow energy minister, and Mark Spencer, a former Cabinet Minister, said the Tories face a “very tricky” set of local elections next year that could see them suffer further losses.
They were both speaking to The Rundown podcast from PoliticsHome after the race to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative party leader got underway in earnest this week, with six candidates officially making it onto the ballot.
Spencer, who lost his Sherwood seat at the 4 July General Election, is backing ex-immigration minister Robert Jenrick to rebuild the Conservatives both in Parliament and in local government, having lost more than 2,000 councillors in the past few years.
“But we do need to brace ourselves that next May may well be quite tricky, whoever wins this leadership competition”, he said.
Because the seats up for grabs in 2025 were mostly last fought in 2021, when the Tories were still polling relatively well, Spencer said “we must not accept that we are at our lowest point right now, as a party”, and called for unity after years of internal rows which saw multiple leaders desposed by their own MPs.
Bowie, who is backing the early favourite Kemi Badenoch, warned both next May’s local elections, as well as elections to devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales in 2026 are going to be “very tricky” for the Tories as they try to recover.
“As Mark said, we cannot and we should not accept that this is as low as it gets, it could get worse”, he added.
“From November, that's where the work begins.”
Damian Green, the former deputy prime minister, who lost his Ashford seat in the election, agreed it could take a while for the Tories to start improving.
Appearing on the same podcast, he said: “It's a curve. I don't want to talk us into a decline, but curves move gradually, you move gradually along, so that's what will happen, and what needs to happen.”
Green, a former leader of the One Nation caucus of Conservative MPs in the Commons, who is backing shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat to be the next leader, agreed that things need to change if it was to win back power.
“If the Conservative party can't be shocked back to common sense and decent behaviour by being reduced to 121 seats in Parliament, then then that would make me question its longevity”, he said.
Three other candidates — Mel Stride, James Cleverly and Priti Patel — have also made it to the first round of the contest, which will see MPs whittle them down to four by 11 September, then down to two following the party annual conference in October, with grassroots members having the final say with the winner declared on 2 November.
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