“I have been a staunch Tory voter all my life, but cannot support a party that really does not think of the people, but only to balance the books at the moment,” wrote Helena Parker in a letter to the Guardian this week. “I cry myself to sleep each evening, while they are warm and fed. The MPs will not think of me, but I think of them”. Such sentiments are dooming the Tories to electoral oblivion.
Unless something extraordinary happens, the Conservatives look set to be fighting at the next general election only for the difference between a respectable second place and a humiliating second place. In a byelection in Chester, Rishi Sunak’s party recorded its worst ever result since 1832. By comparison, Labour recorded its best performance in the city’s history to retain the seat in Thursday’s vote. At this point in the electoral cycle, opposition parties usually benefit from the government’s difficulties. But the news that Sajid Javid, a former Conservative chancellor, has decided to quit parliament is a sign that the Tory ship is going down.
