How to react to unfolding calamity? Tory MPs took different approaches. “Disastrous. Worse than I expected and pointing to a total wipeout.” That’s how one Conservative MP – and not one of the disaffected usual suspects – summed up the local election results to me as the gloom deepened on Saturday. Others preferred to focus on how football teams were doing.
Then there were some game attempts at spin – “Labour are tracking Cameron in 2009, ended up not getting a majority,” said one – but they were few and far between. After Andy Street’s defeat in the West Midlands, the last filigree traces of a silver lining vanished.
