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Tories in denial about ‘catastrophic’ election results in Wales and elsewhere says Telegraph

08 May 2022 3 minute read
Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a school. Picture by Daniel Leal / PA Wire.

The local elections in Wales were “catastrophic” for the Conservatives and leaves them in a “nightmare” position heading into a General Election, the Telegraph newspaper has said in an editorial.

The Telegraph, reportedly described by the Prime Minister as his “real boss”, said that the Conservatives needed to win an absolute majority at the General Election while Labour only needed to be able to govern in coalition with other left-wing parties.

Therefore while Labour had not made as much headway in much of England, the party was in denial if it thought the results in Wales, Scotland and London would not be enough to put Keir Starmer in Downing Street, they said.

“Wales voted Leave, and underwent a partial Tory renaissance that has now gone into reverse,” they said. “The Welsh Tories lost their only council and nearly half their seats.

“They’d also been establishing themselves as the best Unionist alternative to the SNP in Scotland, yet they fell back to third place.

“The party could survive losing 10 seats in the capital if it gained even more elsewhere – but losing that plus another dozen in the devolved nations, the same amount in the Red Wall and another dozen in the blue wall would put Sir Keir Starmer (or a more compelling successor) in Number 10 at the head of a left-wing coalition.

“That is also why highlighting Labour’s somewhat lacklustre share of the vote is missing the point: the Tories need an absolute majority of the seats at Westminster, but Labour does not; it would simply form a coalition with the SNP and Lib Dems.

“Nicola Sturgeon would call the shots. Given Sinn Fein’s success in Northern Ireland, the Union cannot take any more chaos.”

‘Disaster’

The Conservatives lost almost half their councillors in Wales, dropping 86 wards to 111.

They also lost control of Monmouthshire, the only council they held in the country without the help of independents.

The Telegraph called on the Conservatives to turn their attention to younger voters who had not been able to get a foot on the housing ladder due to soaring house prices.

“It is no coincidence that many of those lost London seats contain large numbers of Millennials living in rented accommodation, and the aching failure of a government in power for 12 years to tackle the absurd cost of housing goes to the heart of its self-destruction, they said.”

The editorial added: “Last Thursday was not a realignment, it was a nationwide disaster.

“Unless the government changes direction very fast, these local results will portend something far worse to come.”


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The Original Mark
The Original Mark
1 year ago

If these were just unimportant local elections, as we were told, why are the tories and the right wing press making such a big fuss about the results?
Is it possible they weren’t being honest with us?

John
John
1 year ago

Time to defenestrate RT and replace him with one of their other incompetent buffoons?

Cynan
Cynan
1 year ago
Reply to  John

No keep him. Let the toaridhe destroy themselves utterly. They are a blight on Cymru in the same way their Russian puppeteers are a blight on the world. Then maybe a decent party of the right can grow from the ashes

Dai Rob
Dai Rob
1 year ago

Love to see it……..

Llyn
Llyn
1 year ago

This Telegraph editorial includes the normal trope that as “Wales voted Leave” it therefore overnight it must have became a hotbed of right-wing politics. This is a delusional rabbit hole that has captured the imaginations of the right and far-right since 2016. It ends up with the Tories being humiliated on Thurs and the candidate for the far-right, racist Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party in Rhoose, Vale of Glamorgan coming eighth in an eight candidate contest.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Considering the Telegraph is his ‘mother ship’ it is pretty damning of the competence of their editorial directions to this ‘stranger in a strange land’.

If only Ian Hislop could be persuaded to bring out a daily newspaper. Chunky Mark the artist taxi driver can’t be expected to do it all on his own…

Rhosddu
Rhosddu
1 year ago

Despite the Welsh Tories begging the Welsh people to put Westminster politics and Johnson’s flouting of covid regulations aside in these local elections, the shredding of Tory influence in Wales was the result of state-wide rather than local issues, and can be seen partly as rejection of muscular unionism.

SundanceKid
SundanceKid
1 year ago
Reply to  Rhosddu

Agreed. It is also a rejection of Tory values being imported wholesale into our communities to trash our heritage, culture and language.

Even in English-speaking areas in South Wales, some Tory candidates campaigning on a platform of getting rid of bilingual council literature were roundly defeated in multi-seat wards.

Cynan
Cynan
1 year ago

Nobody care what the Torygraph says. They are a lying spiteful rag with their Cymrophobic narrative and they are a lying spiteful rag now, just turning on their own. Nothing to celebrate from anything that oozes from thon Yoon propagandist

Marc
Marc
1 year ago

“ The Telegraph called on the Conservatives to turn their attention to younger voters who had not been able to get a foot on the housing ladder due to soaring house prices”. Is this the same Telegraph that regularly advises their readers to look at Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire for the best places to buy second homes?

Katy Fowler
Katy Fowler
1 year ago
Reply to  Marc

Exactly

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
1 year ago

The Tories will never change. They are political dinosaurs incapable of accepting reality.

Andy Yorath
Andy Yorath
1 year ago

Yup ….. and I’m pretty sure the balance of the leave vote in Wales came from English Tory bigots who have retired to Wales and regard us as a rural theme park set up purely for their leisure time.

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