It is no surprise after all the scandals that Conservative MPs are bracing themselves for the loss of hundreds of seats in next week’s local elections.
MPs have spent the weekend hearing voters tear into them on the doorstep lamenting Boris Johnson’s shambolic leadership. It was only last week that it was reported that – 61 per cent of the public thought that the PM should resign and leave office after the Partygate fines were issued by the Met police. 59 per cent also said Chancellor Rishi Sunak should walk too.
YouGov conducted the same poll and the result – was 57/57 per cent that they should both go. A further 75 per cent think Boris Johnson lied about it all and only 12 per cent think he did not knowingly lie.
A whopping 74 per cent of the public now feel Boris Johnson is untrustworthy and three quarters think he is a liar – and trust in government has reached an all-time low. Only one third (34 per cent) would now consider voting for Boris Johnson – a continual decline since March 2020.
The FT reports that – “Some Tory MPs believe a bad set of results on May 5 could be the trigger for a vote of confidence in the prime minister, who now has three separate probes into the partygate affair hanging over him. One northern Conservative MP said he expected the party could lose 750 seats next week, while another from the south said he feared the party could suffer as Tory voters stayed at home in droves.”
A ConservativeHome survey published last Sunday found that 58 per cent of Tory members believe the partygate scandal was being overblown by the media and was not important to voters. But this is not reflected in other polls where three-quarters of voters have now had enough of Johnson and are now far more worried about the economy and cost of living crisis, which they believe the Tories are handling very badly.
The FT also quoted one MP from a wealthy Tory constituency who said: “Partygate is still coming up on the doorstep. People are raising the prime minister’s leadership. My fear is they will simply stay at home.” He also predicted the loss of hundreds of council seats.
Another Conservative MP, critical of Johnson, said: “People will come after him after the elections. He’s an existential threat to the Conservative party and to democracy.”
A Labour spokesman said that Tory MPs were “managing expectations” by making exaggerated claims about the scale of possible Conservative losses in next week’s local elections.
In May 2018, local elections saw 34.7 per cent of the 21 million registered voters turn up – either in person or by postal vote. In 2014 it was 35.7 per cent.