Commuters struggling to get to work on an unreliable train service and worried about high interest rates hiking up their mortgage bills were on Wednesday branded “grumpy” by a minister as he sought to persuade people to vote Tory.
Science minister Andrew Griffith adopted the seemingly unusual approach of trying to woo voters, including many in London and the wider South East “Blue Wall” commuter belt, as his party flatlines in the polls on around 20 per cent, more than 20 points behind Labour.
With two fellow ministers quitting on Tuesday, he was asked on GB News if MPs were leaving a sinking ship as they realised they could not hold their seats.
He responded: “No, I absolutely think that the Conservatives can win the election.
“It’s been a difficult number of years.
“No-one foresaw the Covid pandemic, nobody saw Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“So, it’s been difficult for everybody in the country, I understand that.
“People have had their frustrations.
“But the answers to those frustrations are all Conservative.
“If you are worried about your train service not being reliable, the answer is not to repeal every single trade union law passed since the 1970s.
“If you are worried about your interest rates being too high is not to have the hundreds of billions of unfunded spending promises from Labour.
“So, I understand where people are, they are being grumpy.
“We are focusing on delivering our plan...that’s, I think, the way that we can convince people that the right answer is Conservative.”
Inflation has fallen from a peak of more than 11 per cent to 3.4 per cent in February and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has highlighted signs that the country is pulling out of the recession into which it fell at the end of last year.
However, Jim McMahon, Labour's shadow minister for local government, said that many people are still struggling with high prices for their weekly shopping, energy and mortgage or rent.
"So these are very desperate times still for many people," he told Sky News.
"And I think when they see the Government on TV celebrating that inflation isn't quite as high as it might otherwise be, as it was in previous months, I'm afraid that is just an insult to people that are working all the hours that God sends but still not able to make ends meet."
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said: “These comments are an insult to hard-working commuters from a Conservative minister who is simply trying to shirk the blame for the Government’s own economic failures.”
Labour is now more trusted to manage the economy, according to some polls, after Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous “mini-Budget’ sparked financial mayhem during Liz Truss’ brief premiership.
Businesses have some concerns over Labour’s plans for more workers’ rights but Sir Keir Starmer’s party is not planning to tear up all trade union laws for the last 50 years, according to its plans unveiled so far.
Mr Griffith was also grilled about the state of the NHS, stressing that more money had gone into the health service, despite waiting lists being above seven million, which is significantly due to the Covid backlog.
On immigration, he stressed that the Government is a few “bus load” of votes away from getting its Rwanda Bill through the Lords, and clearing Parliament, with the aim that deportation flights can take off in late spring.
Skills minister Robert Halfon and armed forces minister James Heappey announced on Tuesday that they were quitting their Government roles ahead of standing down at the next election.
More than 60 Tory MPs have now said they will not stand again at the election, expected in the autumn, including former Prime Minister Theresa May and a string of ex-Cabinet ministers including ex-Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
A number of London Tory MPs are also standing down including Nickie Aiken, MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, Sutton and Cheam MP Paul Scully, Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond, Sir Bob Neill in Bromley and Chislehurst, and Mike Freer, in Finchley and Golders Green after receiving death threats.
