Where the City’s movers and shakers have their say. Today, it’s James Chapman, director of Soho Communications, with the pen
The real election story
One of the biggest stories of the general election – the Liberal Democrat rout of the Tories in their rural and suburban heartlands – has largely been whitewashed.
The Lib Dems took a record number of seats, ousting four Cabinet ministers and defeating the Tories in constituencies once held by former prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Their tally of MPs stands at 72, beating the party’s previous record of 62 under Charles Kennedy’s leadership in 2005.
They won in places such as education secretary Gillian Keegan’s ultra-safe Chichester seat which had a 21,500 majority in 2019 and had been held by the Conservatives for a century.
Where I live, in Esher and Walton, a non-Conservative MP had not been returned to any part of the constituency since 1906, but Monica Harding crushed the Tory candidate and took over 50 per cent of the vote. Lib Dem policies on Brexit, which included a commitment to rejoin the single market, the NHS and environment resonated in particular, while Tory culture wars and a drift to right-wing extremes with policies like Rwanda put off many centre ground voters.
The Lib Dem advance was certainly a significant part of the unprecedented Tory collapse nationwide. Despite this, it has been all but ignored by the candidates for the Conservative leadership in their analyses of defeat, and most of the political media too has so far failed to respond by giving the Lib Dems the airtime that is now their due.
Winning back Lib Dem seats by appealing to voters in the centre will be crucial to any Tory rebuilding project, given that the Tories are now second to the Lib Dems in 64 constituencies (and second to Labour in 219). Naturally, therefore, many in the party have drawn entirely the wrong lessons from the result and are arguing for an exclusive focus on winning back Reform votes, even though the Tories are second to Reform in precisely… two seats.
Blair can’t help himself
Tony Blair promised not to be a backseat driver. But in the first few weeks of this government, he has offered Keir Starmer public advice on immigration, ID cards, tax, the far right, Europe and AI. He’s making the post-number ten Thatcher look reticent. A long period of silence from the former prime minister would be welcome, not least by members of the Cabinet seeking to make a good impression with voters.
The Nimby Party
The Green Party is now a significant electoral force and a serious threat to Labour. With that success, however, comes more scrutiny. The Greens’ co-leader Adrian Ramsay recently confirmed he is opposing new electricity pylons needed to connect green energy to the grid in his East Anglian constituency, claiming the route is unpopular locally and he’s a ‘constituency MP’ first and foremost. Labour should pursue such shameless hypocrisy and Nimbyism relentlessly.
Truss shadow lives on
Liz Truss was put out that her tenure was described as a disaster in official government documents, complaining that due impartiality had not been shown. Others on the right are relieved that Truss has lost her seat, suggesting her absence from the Commons will somehow prevent Labour using her as a scapegoat. This underestimates the resonance the Truss calamity is likely to have in British politics for years to come. Labour will be using her short period in charge and its consequences as a stick to beat the Tories with for far longer than they did Black Wednesday.
Drop the hate! Thanks are in order
I was dismayed to see a senior Tory peer attacking Andy Murray for what he called a “self-indulgent end-of-career midlife crisis”. Given Murray’s illustrious achievements, and the entertainment he has brought to millions for years, it was entirely up to him how he managed his retirement. Personally, I enjoyed his extraordinary Olympics doubles match with Dan Evans, which saw the British pair save five match points on the trot, as much as anything I’ve ever watched involving Murray. I highly recommend the BBC documentary on his career, Andy Murray: Will to Win, and an older film on his battle back from injury, Andy Murray: Resurfacing, on Amazon Prime. Thanks for everything, Andy.