2y ago

Tories alarmed by threat from the right as Reform UK focuses on pro-Brexit seats

www.theguardian.com

Conservative MPs are warning that their party risks being wiped out in the red wall by an emerging threat on its right flank, amid alarm after two disastrous byelection losses.

The right of the party is seizing on the dire results in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth – two supposedly safe Tory seats – to demand a harder line on immigration and tax cuts designed to nullify the threat posed by Reform UK, the successor to the Brexit party.

9 comments

- What even is the British Right at this point?
  The vast majority of those people who the Tories are trying to grab are likely to be to the left of the party on economic policies and they're also increasingly likely to be poorer than your average Conservative voter.
  If they're looking to stitch together a coalition based on a mutual dislike of people in boats then they're going to get absolutely brutalised at the next GE.
  Personally? I can't wait.
What batshit insane things will the Conservatives do to court isolationists and English National Front members this time?
Place your bets. Maybe we'll reconquer Ireland or build a coastal wall.
- Tories are noy worried about 3rd right of center parties winning seat. But instead deviding their vote so labour can win more seats.
  Exactly the same way labour dose when any 3rd party gets support from their voters.
Tories lose 15% of their voters to Labour: I sleep.
Tories lose 4% of their voters to Reform: We need to be more right wing to fend off this serious threat!
🤔... So red wall racist Labour voters can no longer vote for the Tories and are abandoning them for Reform? Surely that's something to embrace? Neither major party needs that type of vote. Leave them to the fringe parties that will never gain power.
- We need to work on those people, not abandon them. They are normally like this because of ignorance and misattributing poor fortune.
  To clear, humans are rubbish at changing their minds, so it's the kids we can have hope in. Invest in their education. If they live in a mostly monoculture area, bus them to mixed areas to de-other other cultures. At least for trips.
  I know this is happening in some places already, but we need more.
  
  That's a fair point. However both of the two larger political parties have taken the view that they'd rather court the votes that will win them local (as in UK) power than win them global power. I'd much rather a coalition that was outwardly and globally powerful than a majority government that that makes us look like racists and clowns on the global stage. 🤷
Is this it then from them? Is there their grand plan to just slowly shuffle more and more towards fascism pushed there by the more extremist members of their own party. As if doing it slowly over the course of 5 years is any better.
Also then what? If they do go that route then a new right of centre political party will start up and take their former position, then all the on the fence voters who don't actually want extremism will vote for that party and they'll lose anyway.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Conservative MPs are warning that their party risks being wiped out in the red wall by an emerging threat on its right flank, amid alarm after two disastrous byelection losses.
However, Tory MPs on the right who want more radical conservative policies point out that Reform’s level of support in both constituencies was greater than the Labour majority.
It comes as Richard Tice, leader of Reform UK, told the Observer he wanted to help “smash the Tory party”.
One former Tory minister said: “It shows that the failure to deliver on migration means they [Reform UK] alone could hand Labour the red wall.
While a small number of Tory MPs oppose Sunak as leader, Hunt, a senior figure on the liberal wing of the party, has become the prime target for internal critics.
However, the mainstream of the party has also been bombarding Tory whips with messages stating they are doomed if the Conservatives are seen as a right-wing pressure group.
The original article contains 957 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 83%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

9 comments