An unhappy prospect, I’m sure we all agree. But an increasingly likely one. Blood will have blood.
On one side, there are the Heseltines, the Peelites, the modernisers. The Tories, by contrast, are the romantic defenders of Church and King, who have yet to find a lost caue that isn’t worth fighting for. The party needs both.
Councils across England are now struggling to providing more than the statutory minimum. Below this, there is nothing left to cut without the disintegration of core public services and local state capacity.
Having seen the work my team and colleagues across the country do, I have no doubt that the public are best served by those who they can hold fully accountable.
The challenge for Sunak should not be underestimated. Outperforming Brown’s electoral tightening of 2010 may not even produce an outright majority. But politics is all about definition in the moment.
The evidence from the local elections is not that the voters are abandoning the Tories to back Reform or Ukip , but parties of the centre and the left. Their situation is bad, but it can be made worse.
In which Labour would form a minority Government. To date, the Conservatives are down 16 councils and Labour are up six.
The may do so by concentrating on “the unsexy stuff that people care about”, which include dog mess, potholes and parking.
As the place where the first cracks appeared in the Red Wall, our region is of huge political significance, and results here matter.
Local associations want to be able to select parliamentary candidates as early as possible. I completely agree. Therefore, I am delighted to announce that the first tranche of constituencies is being advertised today.
Many former Labour supporters may decide on 4th May that the Conservatives, led now by a Hindu PM, are a better bet.
Also: a windfall tax is an appropriate response to the cost-of-living crisis; banning supermarket deals is not.
It really worries me when coming elections are discussed only in terms of the future of the party leadership.
Ground campaigning will be hugely important to how well the party does. The success of the short campaign largely depends on the work done now.