Both a government minister and a former government minister who was expelled from the prime minister’s inner circle for being too conservative appeared to concede election defeat just 24 hours before voting opened on Thursday.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride acknowledged that the Conservative Party faces comprehensive defeat, making the media rounds on Wednesday morning, the final day of campaigning for the UK general election suddenly called by Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
It has been clear to the public for some time that opinion polls have shown Labour consistently in the lead for months, setting aside public disappointment with the Conservatives for having completely let down their own voters, but the ruling party’s last-minute change in rhetoric is a shock.
“…immigration to Britain is “soaring thanks to prudent Conservative policies” – achieved, as another put it, because “we have the most liberal system in history.” https://t.co/g55mkb3HEd
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 5, 2023
Stride spoke to several broadcasters, repeating much the same message, including on BBC Radio 4, where he said: “I accept where the polls stand today. They’ve been consistently where they are for some time so it seems extremely unlikely they could be very wrong. So we’re likely to be in a position tomorrow where we win a bigger majority than any party has ever achieved.”
“I completely agree that the polls right now show that Labour is likely to win its biggest landslide victory in history tomorrow – far bigger than the 1997 landslide and bigger than the National Government of 1931,” he told Times Radio.
Stride made a final appeal to voters to save them from oblivion by backing the Conservative Party rather than backing Nigel Farage’s reforms. He said an effective opposition in Parliament was needed to hold the expected Labour government to account. While it is true that a parliamentary democracy needs an opposition to balance the government, it is no longer at all clear why the Conservative Party deserves that role.
For example, Farage’s Reform UK is working hard to assume a leading role on the right of British politics.
UK general election: Pro-tax Conservatives disingenuously pitch tax cutshttps://t.co/xECmd2nhqF
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 8, 2024
Another senior Conservative leader is Suella Braverman, who has called on her colleagues to accept the apparent defeat. I have written In The Daily Telegraph Overnight he was reminded that his party has failed miserably on the matters that matter most to his constituents, and that the wages for these sins is inevitably death.
She stated:The Daily Telegraph)
We failed to cut immigration, we failed to cut taxes, we failed to address the net zero and awareness policies we led for 14 years. If our biggest defense is to whine that the left has hijacked the system, who was negligent in allowing it to happen? There’s a reason dishonesty fools no one, and that’s our record in power.
…While I do not agree with all of Farage’s views, we Conservatives need to take an honest and humble look at ourselves and ask how a new party with almost no infrastructure managed to energise voters and attract so many lifelong supporters. The Reformation phenomenon was predictable, avoidable and entirely our own fault.
The conceding of defeat came when former Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson gave a surprise speech at the last minute of his prime ministerial campaign on Tuesday night. The speech immediately revealed just how divided the Conservative party remains in the face of real death (Boris’ speech prompted sitting Conservative ministers to question whether they intended to vote for his party on Thursday), but it was also an opportunity for poke fun.
His final election rally, held at a military museum beneath a suspended helicopter, gave the impression of the fall of Saigon, but it also prompted Reform UK to mock the fact that the Conservatives attracted (what they claimed was) 150 people at their last big event, while Nigel Farage attracted 5,000 on Sunday.
Farage: 5,000 people rally on Sunday
Boris: 150 people gathered yesterday
The momentum England
Vote with your heart tomorrow pic.twitter.com/Kg6fOiNpij
— Richard Tice (@TiceRichard) July 3, 2024
