Tories concede local election results have been 'difficult'

how would you describe the results well they've been difficult there's no doubt about that but I think within that there are a couple of points that I've made one is that in 2021 when we last had uh these local elections of course that was a high water mark we had the uh Bounce from the covid vaccine uh roll out so it's quite a high bar to be uh compared with and the second thing is I think amongst the results there are some things that have been encouraging now one of those clearly uh is uh the uh teas Valley uh result uh the fact that Ben hin won in every five of the Burrows that sit beneath that meral area I think is very important it's clearly an area that labor must win if they are to get the keys to number 10 right at the heart of the red wall and the other result was harow where in fact K starma went there with Angela Rena the night before the election for a big rally and made uh made it very clear and very public uh that in order to get the keys to number 10 harow was the kind of council that they had to win and of course that didn't happen so I think uh mixed of course and uh a lot still to do but the general election will be something different maybe we'll come on to this yes than the local results we will but you know at the same time we are on local election night special program so we should sort start with the locals and this isn't my first rodeo look I know when politicians come on these interviews you're going to pick the results that tell your narrative but you really saying that your two bright spots is Ben hon losing 20% of his vote share in teas Valley and the conservatives losing five seats in harow you say it's a mixed set of results I mean what would be a bad set of results candidates been taken out by meteor okay well I I made the point about the high water mark in 2021 of course then Ben got 73% of the vote was asonor but if you went back to the first time he got elected actually it was down at 40% so he's considerably Advanced even this time around on that first election success so look I'm not putting any gloss on this at the end of the day it's been a tough set of results and we got to pick ourselves up and do the right things to make sure in the right shape for the general election because the poll that's really going to matter uh as you know Sophie is going to be what happens in the general election and that is a very different kind of contest I'm interested when you say you have to do the right thing for the general election because you know normally when parties have a bad set of results you say you know that you're listening to what the voters have said so does that mean you're going to change something as a result of these elections okay so the manifesto has yet to be created and it wouldn't be right for me to app Pine on what may or may not be within that but I think what we've got to do as a party and there's been a lot of talk about unity and whether we're behind the Prime Minister Etc which we totally are is we've got to start outward facing and we've got to start talking and communicating effectively about the things that we're doing our record so getting down inflation from 11 to 3% getting real wages increasing in each of the last N9 months tackling those cost of living issues cutting people's tax a third off National insurance for employees it's a huge tax cut worth £900 for an average earner per year uh we're looking at as you know migration we've got a Rwanda Bill through and contrasting that with where labor is at the moment now where labor is on the migration of course is they've said that the 990,000 plus illegal migrants that are here they're prepared to effectively look at some kind of soft amnesty style Arrangements around that we've got to get into taking those arguments and battles to labor it's going to be easier as the election ad uh closer to the election because what labor will then have to do is start explaining what their policies are and at the moment in many areas like mine welfare I have no idea what labor believes just talking about the conservative party because you're not just losing votes to labor you're losing votes to the green party to Independence to reform and just listening to you it does sound like you're basically just saying you need to communicate the things you're already doing better you know is that enough voters already know what your policy is on you know whether it's you know inflation or or Rwanda voters know that and they still rejected you are you're not going to change anything so as as we come towards the general elction clearly there will be Manifesto commitments that we made and lots of exciting and interesting things that will be said by the conservative party at that point the point that I make is that as we approach that general election quite rightly it's going to be framed as the conservatives versus k stama rishy sunak k stama who's going to get the keys to number 10 and govern the country and I think at that point people are going to expect more of Labor in terms of telling us what they actually stand for we've had this mingal strategy where K stor has carried this Ming vas very trying to protect his pole lead across this slippery floor for fear of dropping it okay that won't last it won't wash into a general election so I think we're going to see a very different Dynamic going forward but I do accept that of course these results have been difficult and it it pains me that so many great conservative counselors who've stood up for their communities are now no longer representing those communities um we've got Richard Tyson on the program later today they ran you pretty close second didn't they uh in Blackpool South what's your strategy for dealing with reform well there's no doubt that uh reform is very unlikely to win um seats at the next general election under the first P the post uh uh take VES you system exactly so what that therefore leads to is the conclusion that voting for reform is effectively a vote for the labor party now you saw that even in Blackpool South actually where you know there was a as you say quite a a significant relatively significant uh Poll for reform but it's not enough it's not it's nowhere near when you went back to ukip for example in the 20 2015 or thereabouts and you looked at what they were doing in B elction it was much more impressive maybe joins reform or leads reform could change who well who who can predict the the future on on a number of different uh counts but I think the main point and get back to your question is that when it comes to uh reform um yes we've got to address the issues that reform voters uh are quite rightly uh vexed by and immigration is one of them and I've spoken a little bit about that um but equally it is just simply the case that under our electoral system if you're going to vote for reform I'm afraid you're going to help the labor party so you're not worried about them I didn't say that little bit I said well if we're in a situation where clearly reform is stopping conservative uh uh members of parliament being elected and in their place we're getting labor party members and a labor government then of course that's a concern but my appeal would be to th that come the general election uh that those that are thinking of voting that way bear in mind the fact that it is a simple equation if you vote for reform you're going to get labor now you said that you don't want to pred project predict results so apologies in advance for this last question um there are a few rumors swelling about what's happening in London that we could see an upset what are you what are you picking up right okay you're trying to draw me into some you're brilant way you do it right right I'm I'm not going to sort of Chomp that one all in one but look I I don't know we we have to wait uh for the results there are indeed suggestions that it might be tighter than one would imagine and I think that speaks to an important Point here actually is that we've had a lot of results so far but we still have a lot more to come including of course the West Midlands meril results as well so let's wait and see see what happen but you are picking up rumors that it might be closer than I'm only picking up well you're picking up uh so which is that it may or may not be what SS exploding etc etc well well we we don't quite know what I do know is Sadi KH you know you've got knife crime going up you've got ules in the Alo baras you've got war on motorists you've got loading up um you know residents you can't though Strangely I didn't no no mride thank you very much indeed Mel stride there the working pension secretary

Channel: Sky News

Views: 38,444

Keywords: keir, starmer, labour, party, politics, blackpool, vote 2024, sky news, uk news, elections, local, Sky News, Sky, Uk, Elections, Local, Vote 2024, Democracy, Ballot, Poll, Polling, Conservatives, Tories, Labour, local election results, local elections, Conservative party, Rishi Sunak, Prime minister, Rishi Sunak reaction, shadow home secretary, mel stride

Id: dtIuaPEGCCk

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Fri May 03 2024