If you run a business you will know the pain of not being heard by politicians, of the weight of the tax axe hanging over you. You will know the frustration of dealing with more red tape — all imposed by people who just don’t get it. The solution is for those of us who do ‘get it’ to step up.
It is not simply the departure of a minister. It is a warning that, at a moment when Britain requires greater urgency, resilience and strategic direction, this government appears increasingly unable—or unwilling—to provide them.
Laying the groundwork for any Labour attempt to ‘rejoin’ will require patience, discipline, strong communication and a lot of political skill – all of which have so far been scarce in this government. If, on the other hand, Labour decides to as a last-minute roll of the dice, these risks will bite much harder.
Ours was a relentlessly anti-Labour campaign. Even when our canvassing results showed us losing votes to Reform, we did not shift our focus from Labour. We didn’t attack Reform or change our leaflets to make them the threat in the hope of picking up voters from elsewhere.
The political map has been redrawn, and the Conservatives are becoming a party of only wealthy and older voters. This is a dangerous development for the party, and the cliff edge is moving closer.
The Conservatives and Labour have benefited from an electoral system that delivers large parliamentary majorities with a small slice of the overall vote. But this is changing, and the question for the Tory party is whether it continues defending a model built for a political era that may be ending.
The Tories are still staring up a mountain with a long hard slog to go, and could still find another grinning and laughing at them from above when they get closer to the top, but the point is they aren’t going backwards. The path they choose next is the vital bit.
There is a long way to go to the next General Election. Seriousness, clarity and conviction. That is our path back. We must show the public we understand the challenges that they and the country are facing, and that we are doing the deep thinking to deliver it.
In their determination to squeeze every ounce of tax from pubs, Labour risks breaking an industry that offers a lifeline to thousands of young people who know the classroom isn’t for them.
On the local elections a clear majority thought a bad night for Labour would be a reflection on the Labour government generally or Keir Starmer in particular. A majority of 2024 Labour voters also said it would be down to Starmer or Labour in general, and were evenly divided between the two.
After the cavalcade rolls on, life in English councils, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd will go on, with the minutiae of bins, roads, street lighting, looked after children, schools and care for the elderly. Who they get to run all that, very little connection to any of that.
The council you elect will run your bin collections, look after the elderly and those with special needs, repair your roads and set your council tax. These are not small things, and the difference between good and bad councils is huge. Good Conservative councils have shown that difference.
Frustrating news for the Conservatives, our model does not currently project the party to be winning back control of either Westminster or Wandsworth. These are, naturally, the top two Borough targets for a Conservative party looking to show they can win again.
Since the global financial crisis, growth has been held up as the solution to all our problems: the answer to stagnant wages, creaking public services, and a rising cost of living. And it would be, if we had done any of the things necessary to allow it to happen.
If representation truly matters, then Labour’s inability, or unwillingness, to elect a woman leader is one of the most remarkable and least discussed facts in modern British politics, and it is only those in the Labour Party who can change this