Suella Braverman has said the Conservatives have run out of time to oust Rishi Sunak but he needs to “own this and fix it”, after local election results indicated the UK is heading for a Labour government.
The former home secretary said Sunak’s “plan is not working” and the prime minister needed to change course, as “at this rate we will be lucky to have any Conservative MPs at the next election”.
Braverman spoke out after the Conservatives lost 400 council seats in the local elections, as well as Andy Street as the West Midlands mayor, and 10 police and crime commissioners.
Street has called for the Conservatives to move to the centre to address voters’ concerns, while others have warned the party is facing more of a challenge on their left flank than the right.
The former West Midlands mayor said: “The thing everyone should take from Birmingham and the West Midlands tonight is this brand of moderative, inclusive, tolerant conservatism, that gets on and delivered, has come within an ace of beating the Labour party in what they considered to be their backyard – that’s the message from here tonight.”
However, Sunak is in a bind because the Reform UK party is also taking votes from the Tories on the right, coming within a 150 votes of the party in the Blackpool South byelection.
Braverman said Tory voters were “on strike” as Sunak is not Conservative enough, with his ban on smoking and legislation against pedicabs, and instead called for action on the European court of human rights, a cap on legal migration and more tax cuts.
Braverman, who was sacked by Sunak last year, told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m urging the prime minister to change course, to with humility reflect on what voters are telling us and change the plan and the way that he’s communicating and leading us.”
Pressed on why he should not be removed if the situation was so bad, she said: “Listen, I just don’t think that is a feasible prospect, we don’t have enough time and it’s impossible for anyone new to change our fortunes. There’s no superman or superwoman out there. Rishi Sunak has been leading us for 18 months. These are consequences of his decisions. He needs to own this and therefore he needs to fix it.”
Braverman did not directly answer the question when asked whether she had been involved in plotting against Sunak but said many of her colleagues were “privately demoralised”.
She also launched a tirade against Starmer, saying it was a “disgrace we are trailing up against Labour led by Keir Starmer who has the charisma of a peanut, who is overseeing a party which is a rabble of hard-left maniacs, who would undo Brexit, who would open our borders, and who would indoctrinate our institutions and our schools with politically correct madness”.
Starmer called on Sunday for Sunak to call an election. Writing in the Observer, he said: “Whichever political party you belong to or support, what is unforgivable is leaving your country after a period in government in a worse state than when you found it. It’s time for him to put the country first and call an election.
“Labour is on the starting line, raring to go and itching to implement our plan for a decade of national renewal. These elections showed more people are joining our mission to change the country as well.”
Labour added about 180 seats, to reach more than 1,100 overall, while the Lib Dems gained 100 seats to grow to a total of about 520 councillors. The Conservatives lost about 470 seats and dropped to about 513 councillors, meaning they were outperformed by the Lib Dems, according to results counted so far. Labour won the mayoralties of the East Midlands, North East, and York and North Yorkshire, which covers Sunak’s own constituency.
Pat McFadden, Labour’s elections chief, said there were “tremendous results” overall but acknowledged the party’s approach to Gaza had been a factor in losing councillors in some areas. He said there was “a mood of change in the country and we have to meet it”.
