- Jennifer McKiernan & Hannah Miller, Political Correspondents
- bbc politics
Suella Braverman has called on Rishi Sunak to “own” the Conservative Party’s poor results in local elections in England.
The former home secretary said the “plan is not working” and urged the Prime Minister to “change course” and move to the right.
Mr Braverman, an MP and former Conservative leadership candidate, said there was not enough time to change leadership before the general election and it was now up to Mr Sunak to “settle things”.
But Transport Secretary Mark Harper insisted the Prime Minister’s plan was “working”.
The Conservative Party is licking its wounds after a series of defeats in local elections, losing control of 10 councils and more than 470 parliamentary seats.
Ben Houchen’s re-election as Tees Valley mayor on Friday provided a breather for the party, but the ouster of West Midlands mayor Andy Street on Saturday night was a blow.
The Conservatives also lost the Blackpool South by-election, making it their seventh by-election defeat since Mr Sunak took over.
“There’s no hiding the fact that it was a terrible election result for the Conservatives,” Mr Braverman told BBC Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
“I am calling on the Prime Minister to reverse course, humbly consider the views of his constituents and change his plans and the way he informs and guides us.”
Mr. Braverman regrets supporting Mr. Sunak as leader, but says it is “impossible” to replace the leader in a general election scheduled to take place within about six months, adding, “Superman is also super. Woman doesn’t exist either.”
He added: “Rishi Sunak has been leading us for about 18 months and he’s made these decisions and these are the results of those decisions and he needs to make this his own. , so it needs to be fixed,” he added.
Mr Braverman laid out a potential course of action, saying the problem was that Conservative voters were “on strike” and being told “you’re not Tories anymore”, and Mr Sunak said: “Really? “We need to show that we care,” he said. .
She said: “He needs to actually lower taxes in a way that people can feel, rather than making small adjustments.
“If he’s serious about immigration, he needs to put limits on legal immigration and take us out of the European Convention on Human Rights. That way he can show that he’s serious about stopping ships. You can really get the message across.”
When challenged about the evidence that a shift to the right brightens the Conservative Party’s prospects, Mr Braverman said: “There’s evidence that people aren’t voting for what he’s doing… They don’t see the benefit.” ” he answered.
He said many Conservative MPs had been privately “demoralised”, adding: “At this rate we will be lucky to have a Tory MP in the next election.”
Despite the poor result, there was no opposition from Mr Sunak’s own ranks against him, with one former cabinet minister telling Laura Kuenssberg that there was “no desire to roll the dice again”. Told.
In the view of many MPs, there is no clear alternative to Mr Sunak. Others, however, want to place the blame on Mr Sunak and his cabinet if a predicted defeat comes.
One former cabinet minister told Laura Kuenssberg: “Sunak is not being challenged just because no one wants to own up to failure.”
Labour’s campaign manager Pat McFadden hailed the party’s “amazing” election results, particularly its victory in the West Midlands mayoral race, which “exceeded our expectations”.
“These were incredible local election results, incredible by-elections and a series of mayoral election results,” he said, adding that people felt “a different Labor Party than it was a few years ago, a Labor Party that is fundamentally tested. I can see them passing the exam,” he added. “The trust that voters are looking for: Can they trust public funds? Can they trust national security?”
But Mr McFadden admitted Labor’s stance on the Middle East had hurt the party in local elections.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion.”
Mr Harper defended the Conservative Party’s chances of a general election, saying there was still “all the work to be done” and insisted the government’s plans were “working”.
Pointing to the Rwanda Plan, he said: “This plan is meant to be realized and the plan is working, but we have not yet seen it through to the end.
“I think people want to have babies, so they want inflation to continue to fall. They want the boats to stop and they want NHS waiting lists to continue to fall.”
He said the election result was closer than opinion polls suggested and noted that parliament was dysfunctional, adding: “The election is not a foregone conclusion.”
Health Minister Maria Caulfield also said there was no need to change policy but that it needed to deliver “conservative values”.
“I don’t think we need to change, but I do think we need to deliver on what we promised in the 2019 election,” she said.
“People are frustrated that we’re not doing as much as we promised on immigration, that the economy is struggling because of the coronavirus, and that there’s a war in Ukraine. ”
Apart from Mr Sunak’s own position, the disastrous local election result for the Conservative Party raises the possibility of further infighting over the future direction of the party.
Following his defeat, Mr Street pointed to the close result in which he lost the mayoral race to Labor winner Richard Parker by just 1,508 votes.
Defeated, Mr. Street suggested that the fact that he came so close was proof of the value of “moderate” conservatism, the exact opposite of Mr. Braverman’s prescription.
Mr Sunak will face calls from people like the former home secretary to say he needs to be more radical. In other words, Mr. Sunak will be pulled in two directions.
