Here’s the real crisis facing the Tories: their older voters are dying off, and nobody’s replacing them

The Conservative campaign office in Wellingborough. Labour won the seat, once held by the disgraced former Tory MP Peter Bone, in a 2024 byelection. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

Are the Conservatives a dead party walking? Settling down to a lengthy leadership contest, the contenders for the crown are hoping for a quick bounce back. But first, let’s look at some of the candidates’ diagnoses of the party’s worst defeat in its parliamentary history.

James Cleverly is of the view that his party was rejected because it was lacking discipline and unity. Tom Tugendhat’s pitch supposes that it lost the trust of voters because of failures to get to grips with immigration, and he therefore would be willing to pull Britain out of the European convention on human rights. Announcing her candidacy, Priti Patel said it was “time to put unity before personal vendetta, country before party and delivery before self-interest”.