The Tory Party Faces an Election Drubbing of Its Own Making
The May local elections will highlight Kemi Badenoch’s failure to find a strategy for dealing with Nigel Farage.
Nigel Farage and his Reform party pose an existential threat to the Tories.
Photographer: Carl Court/Getty Images EuropeHow low can the Tories go? The UK’s so-called natural party of government suffered its worst election result in parliamentary history last year, and yet its decline hasn’t been halted. On May 1, the Conservative Party is expected to suffer huge losses in local elections — evidence that voters haven’t yet forgiven it for overseeing 14 years of chaos and economic stagnation.
The Conservatives were always expected to fare badly; last time these elections were held, in 2021, Boris Johnson was still popular and Keir Starmer was fighting the hard left for control of the Labour party. But never mind the loss of seats — just watch the Tory vote share plummet. In a Politico poll of polls published this week, the populist Reform UK party averages 25%, Labour is on 24% and the Tories trail on 21%.