The Conservatives will not be pivotal in Makerfield, but the Tory Party is beginning to wonder about how Makerfield could prove pivotal for them. Over the past week numerous Conservative MPs and CCHQ officials have raised the prospect of an early general election.
It would be absurd to get rid of Starmer in order to replace him with Streeting, Rayner or Burnham. Nor is the Opposition ready for office.
Twin by-elections have unleashed a fresh discourse: should there be some sort of electoral pact between the Tories and Reform? The option has been floated by two Conservatives – one current MP, one former MP – as a way of consolidating the right and holding back Burnham, whom they regard as disastrous for the economy.
Streeting has made it much harder for Burnham to disclaim membership of the pro-European Establishment.
The Tory Leader’s ratings continue to soar and it seems there is broad contentment with the wider shadow cabinet, but still Westminster talks about a reshuffle of fresh faces.
ConservativeHome’s round-up of ten of our best articles from the preceding week.
For Conservative members Andy Burnham was out in front, ten points ahead of Keir Starmer, as to whom they expected to lead into an election, and that was before the rows of this week, but who’d they’d prefer to lead told a different story. Not one Starmer would enjoy.
As rumours swirl around Wes Streeting, the Government’s legislative agenda looks thinner than ever. The Tory leader offered something Westminster has seen little of lately: an argument about governing.
Today is not the end, perhaps the beginning of the end, but the endgame was laid down years ago, and depressingly still has some way to run.
Saddle up, it’s going to be bumpy ride.
Having cheered the downfall of Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister now confronts the same fate himself. If this is meant to be Starmer fighting for survival, one wonders what surrender would look like.
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.
ConservativeHome’s round-up of ten of our best articles from the preceding week.
Even as Badenoch celebrates gains in London, the right-wing vote split is reshaping British politics – and there is a worry Reform will weaponise this to make it look like the Conservative Party doesn’t represent working people.
It never was going to be a glorious morning for the Conservatives, but the ‘sit rep’ right now is a beleaguered but unbowed acceptance of baked in expectations. Watching the Labour party take a beating less than two years after a landslide, as Dorothy said, folks, we are not in Kansas anymore.
The Conservatives are hoping that local competence can carry them through this set of elections, but some worry it carries an uncomfortable implication about the national message.