5 Strange Ways Tories Have Tried To Excuse Local Election Losses

The Conservatives are having a tough time trying to explain away the first set of damning results from the local elections.

Less than 12 hours after polls closed, it was announced that the Tories had lost the Blackpool South by-election as well as three councils, Hartlepool, Rushmoor and Redditch.

Rishi Sunak’s party is expected to lose hundreds more seats in councils across England and Wales over the coming days, too.

Here’s how the party is trying to defend itself.

1. It’s ‘mid-term’

Tory party chairman Richard Holden justified the losses to Sky News by saying that the results are “typical for a government in mid-term”.

Actually, we are due to have a general election this year. The current parliament’s term will end in mid-December – meaning this government is definitely not in the middle of its term.

2. The public are sick of left-wing’s ‘wokeist agenda’

Backbencher Dame Andrea Jenkyns had an interesting interpretation of the early results on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme.

She said: “The last 24 hours, I think, Rishi has got a message from the electorate: wake up, be Conservative or we lose.

“I think that’s the actual message that has come through.”

She admitted the Tories have been doing “disastrously” in recent by-elections, but said: “We’ve got to have common sense policies – people are sick of this wokeist agenda from the left which is impacting every institution”.

Actually, Labour, the Tories’ left-wing opponents, secured a swing away from the Conservative vote in the Blackpool South by-election and three council elections in the last 24 hours.

3. Voters want ‘more Conservative delivery’

On BBC Breakfast, host Charlie Stayt said: “The one thing people are not hearing you say is that ‘voters do not like what we, the Conservative Party, are offering’, which to many people would seem like a very reasonable conclusion.”

Holden said voters in Blackpool South wanted the government to fulfil their pledge to stop the boats.

Stayt asked: “You’re saying they wanted what you’re offering, but they didn’t vote for you?”

“I think what they want to see is things like us delivering on the Rwanda scheme, which the Labour Party has opposed,” Holden said.

He continued: “What they want to see is more Conservative delivery on things like dealing with illegal migration, they want to see that deterrent.”

4. A cut in council majority is still an ‘incredible’ win

Leader of the Harlow Conservatives, councillor Dan Swords, told ITV News that last night was actually an “incredible result” for the Tories.

He said the party was in a difficult place right now, but “here in Harlow we have bucked that trend”.

It’s worth noting that while the Conservatives did manage to hold onto the council, they actually saw their majority slashed from nine seats to just one.

5. It’s all about ‘messaging’

After 14 years of a Conservatives in Downing Street, the Tory party chair Holden still suggested the problem is just that voters do not understand how much the government had done for them.

On BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Holden said the Tories need to be talking about their successes “consistently and all the time” to show “the British people we are on their side”.