The heavy defeat faced by the Conservative Party in England’s local elections has ignited a new internal conflict concerning the party’s future strategy. Members of the party are divided, with some advocating for a stronger right-wing stance to recapture lost voters, whilst others believe that targeting the moderate middle ground is the key to success.
Suella Braverman, a right-leaning ex-home secretary who was removed from her role by UK prime minister Rishi Sunak last year, on Sunday appealed to him to shift the party further right ahead of the upcoming general election. Braverman urged for reflections on the election results and a change in the party’s strategy during an interview with BBC.
Braverman proposed adjustments such as imposing limits on legal immigration to the UK, which has hit unprecedented highs post-Brexit, and extricating the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to thwart its courts’ involvement in immigration legislation. Furthermore, she appealed to the prime minister to address the issue of transgender ideology within the education system and reduce taxes “in a noticeable way, not just making minor adjustments”. Braverman has now expressed remorse for her past support of Sunak taking up the position of Prime Minister in October 2022, succeeding Liz Truss.
Moderates in the party cautioned against any further rightward shift. Andy Street, the two-term mayor of the West Midlands area including Birmingham, who narrowly lost his bid for a third term to Labour’s Richard Parker by a minuscule margin of 1,500 votes, strongly discouraged this shift. Mr Street promoted his model of “moderate, inclusive, tolerant conservatism” as nearly successful in defeating Labour on their home turf in Birmingham.
He argued that the results demonstrated the effectiveness of striving for the central ground. Despite the overall poor performance of the Conservatives, there was a glimmer of hope from Ben Houchen, the Conservative mayor of the Tees Valley region near Middlesborough, although even there, Labour experienced a swing of 19 percentage points.
In the UK capital, Mayor Sadiq Khan secured over a million votes, exceeding his Conservative rival, Susan Hall, by a margin of 11%. Their fierce and contentious battle was characterised by personal accusations around racial and religious matters. The Tory party is now dealing with backlash over their choice of candidate, namely Ms Hall, who was accused of countenancing racially motivated online vitriol against Mr Khan.
Prior to the commencement of Saturday’s count in the capital, Tory advisors optimistically posited late on Friday that Ms Hall might upset predictive polls and achieve an unexpected victory over Mr Khan. The latter had been criticised by Tories for broadening London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) scheme, which penalises the drivers of older cars with environmental charges. However, this concern did prove influential at the ballot box, as it enabled him to call upon Green Party supporters to tactically bolster his vote in order to defeat Ms Hall, who pledged to eliminate Ulez.
Over the voting weekend, the Tory party experienced a loss of more than 470 council seats – half of the total being campaigned for – marking their poorest local election performance in approximately forty years. While Labour enjoyed notable success, their progress was tempered by a decline in support from predominantly Muslim areas, who showed resentment towards the party’s position on the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Despite the Tory turmoil, it seems unlikely that there will be a move to oust Mr Sunak prior to the forthcoming general election. Nevertheless, political analysts indicated that despite not reaching ambitious expectations, Labour’s significant victories in strategic areas suggest that its leader, Keir Starmer, remains on track for moving into Downing Street.