{"id":120360,"date":"2023-10-20T10:09:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T10:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cottontailsonline.com\/?p=120360"},"modified":"2023-10-20T10:09:02","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T10:09:02","slug":"sunak-has-to-stop-the-boats-or-lose-as-tory-civil-war-erupts-over-by-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottontailsonline.com\/politics\/sunak-has-to-stop-the-boats-or-lose-as-tory-civil-war-erupts-over-by-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunak has to ‘stop the boats or lose’ as Tory civil war erupts over by-elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Curtice says by-election losses ‘bad news’ for Tories<\/h3>\n

Symbolically, it could not have been much worse.<\/p>\n

As voters prepared to go to the polls in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire in two crucial by-elections, Downing Street leaked that the Prime Minister had surrendered to the woke, quasi-socialist wing of the Conservative Party.<\/p>\n

It emerged that Rishi Sunak now intends to put a ban on conversion therapy of gay people into the King’s speech because he was afraid of some ministerial resignations – this will ban things like electric shock treatment which are already illegal but also ban praying or family or medical professionals offering advice.<\/p>\n

In the great scheme of things, banning conversion therapy may not be the biggest issue and certainly ranks far below the cost of living crisis, but as a signal to Conservative voters who think the party has lost its way and is no longer conservative, it could not have been worse.<\/p>\n

Not for the first time, in what is becoming a bitter civil war, Sunak had sided with the socially liberal woke leftists in his party, probably because they were the ones who installed him as leader and were behind the coups to remove Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, Tory voters stayed at home in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire \u2013 and Sunak was humiliated.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong> Rishi Sunak suffers double by-election blow as Tories lose key seats<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Let us put aside the laughable claims that these terrible defeats had anything to do with Nadine Dorries or Chris Pincher \u2013 the straws senior Tory MPs were desperately clutching at last night.<\/p>\n

A telling briefing note shared by one angry Conservative backbencher, and supported by many others, showed exactly what is wrong with Sunak’s strategy and how the by-election defeats illustrate that it is conservative not woke policies which will save him and his party.<\/p>\n

Statistically, the MP shared a party summary which made three points:<\/p>\n

1. Turnout was so low that nearly two-thirds of voters didn\u2019t come out to vote at all – meaning lots of undecideds\/disgruntled Conservatives to win back and motivate to vote still;<\/p>\n

2. Labour only added 800 votes onto their vote share that they secured in 2019 in Tamworth, and went backwards on their 2019 vote share in Mid Bedfordshire;<\/p>\n

3. In Tamworth, nine percent of the votes went between Reform, Ukip, and For Britain, with Reform responsible for nearly six percent of that alone.<\/p>\n

The briefing noted that this “shows migration and in particular stopping the boats is vital in old and current Red Wall seats like Tamworth and failure to deliver means people voting Reform will get Labour”.<\/p>\n

Don’t miss… <\/strong>
Sunak dealt devastating poll blow with Tories facing crushing election defeat[REVEAL] <\/strong>
PMQs just exposed Tory backbench chaos over illegal migration[INSIGHT] <\/strong>
Moment furious Tory by-election candidate storms off after finding out he lost[REACT] <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n