Sky News presenter Kay Burley called out a senior Tory for his “optimistic” take on his party’s horrendous general election results this morning.
Rishi Sunak’s close ally Mel Stride, who is widely expected to put himself forward as the next Conservative leader, suggested his party can turn its chances around in the next five years and return to government.
During a live interview, Stride told Burley: “I personally think, I’m quite optimistic, that we can actually turn this around in one cycle, that we can be back in government the next time around, just as the Labour Party did after that terrible defeat in 2019 – the worst result for them since the 1930s – when Keir Starmer [was] apparently considered his position before the coming election...”
But the Sky News presenter reminded him: “Yours was the worst ever!”
The Tories secured 121 seats in the election earlier this month, the worst parliamentary result they’ve ever recorded.
For comparison, Labour took 211 seats in 2019.
Keir Starmer’s landslide victory this year – with 411 seats – also eclipses the 365 seats Boris Johnson took in 2019 by some margin.
But Stride ignored Burley’s remark, and said: “Look at them now.
“The Labour Party came in with less than 34% of the vote, that’s the lowest share of any governing party.”
The Sky News presenter reminded him: “Which side of the Commons are they sitting on?”
“Of course, there is a very large number of them. But that can be unwound,” Stride insisted.
As he lamented the impact of tactical voting in the election, Burley cut in to point out how this country uses the first past the post system.
She said: “That’s democracy in the United Kingdom, that’s how we do our polling.”
The presenter then moved onto the blue-on-blue attacks making headlines recently.
She said: “Are you one of those centrist cranks that Suella Braverman has been talking about?”
Braverman, who is also expected to throw her hat into the Tory leadership ring, has warned against any attempts to move the party closer to the centre of the political spectrum.
But Stride dismissed this comment and called for unity in his party instead, saying: “I think these notions of left and right are rather displaced in this particular discussion.”
Stride also told Times Radio this morning that he was “deeply disturbed” by his party’s performance in the election.
The former work and pensions secretary said: “I’m deeply disturbed at the fact that we have suffered one of our biggest electoral defeats, to have lost 20 percentage points to the popular vote, to have lost two thirds of our seats. It gives us a huge job ahead.”
However, he again pointed to Labour’s victory, and said: “There are no rules in politics now. Everything is possible. And if we take the right steps going forward now in terms of getting unity, getting the right programme together, showing that we can be a responsible, competent party in opposition, then I think we can create that platform to win.”