Tory chairman Greg Hands has been mocked over his party’s disastrous local election campaign.
The Conservatives lost more than 1,000 seats as well as control of nearly 50 councils as their worst fears were realised.
Hands played a high-profile role in the campaign, touring the country in an attempts to drum up support for the Tories.
Now the Lib Dems have produced data which shows that in the so-called “Blue Wall” of Tory-held seats in the south of England, a large number of those he visited ended up switching to their party.
A spokesperson said: “Greg Hands has got the Midas Touch, almost everywhere he visits turns Lib Dem gold.”
According to the Lib Dem data, the party gained 69 seats from the Tories in blue wall areas visited by Hands, while also gaining control of the councils in Guildford and Stratford upon Avon.
The Lib Dem spokesperson said: “He was brought in to shore up the Blue Wall but ended up seeing it collapse even more.
“Voters across the country are fed up with the Conservative Party and their appalling record on the NHS, cost of living and sewage.
“We need a general election now so we can kick this out-of-touch Conservative government out of office.”
Hands was told on the morning after the elections that the Tories were “heading for a brick wall at 100 miles an hour”.
Speaking Radio 4′s Today programme, Hands admitted it had been a “very difficult night” for the party.
He said the government would continue to focus on what he believed were the “people’s priorities” of halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting NHS waiting lists and stopping the boats carrying asylum seekers across the Channel.