The results of the local and mayoral elections - and indeed the Runcorn by-election - were, to many, entirely predictable.
The former Conservative Government had clearly run out of steam and ideas and had an inability to understand or respond to public opinion. It was too timid and lacked the wherewithal to see the writing on the wall and at least attempt to change course to realign itself with the views of those it was entrusted to represent.
But we now have a Labour Government that is, if anything, more out of touch than the puffed-out Conservative Government it replaced. Sir Keir Starmer‘s Labour Party was gifted a landslide majority at the 2024 UK general election.
We are now approaching the first anniversary of this new Labour Government. They have completely ignored what the British people have been saying to successive governments for decades. Just like their Conservative predecessors, they have decided that they know best, and the voters will just have to take it or leave it. They chose to leave it.
Starmer’s Labour: arrogant, out-of-touch, and failing Britain - Royston Smith
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The Reform Party polled over 4 million votes in the general election and has now swept the board in the local elections. What is Labour’s response? “We need to go further and faster.” A characteristically tone-deaf reaction.
People talk endlessly of a merger between the Conservatives and the Reform Party, but that is to misunderstand the fundamental differences between the two parties. Reform is right-wing on immigration and on the daft, woke policies of the liberal establishment, but left-wing on economic issues.
We are at a crossroads. The Conservative opposition, the Labour Government, and the other parties must decide what they want to be: a party of government or a fringe protest group.
Neither the Liberal Democrats nor the Green Party are serious parties of government. The Conservative Party - which is the most successful political party in history - is the natural party of government. I don’t say that because I’m a former Conservative MP, but because change should be incremental. It should be done at a pace that is deliverable and brings the voters on the same journey. The Conservative Government forgot that.
Reform must prove they can deliver in local government.
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Reform has now made significant gains and, from today, will be running councils for the first time. There are plenty of diversity and equality issues within councils for them to get their teeth into - not all as loony as Westminster Council, which now insists on positive discrimination in favour of what they call the ‘Global Majority’, forgetting completely that they are not a global government, but a local council.
Equality and diversity is not the only thing councils are responsible for, and we are about to find out what Reform will do in office. Will they have potholes filled more quickly? Will our elderly people be looked after more compassionately? Will our children be better educated? Will Reform councils empty our bins more frequently, remove litter from our streets, clean graffiti from the walls, and repair vandalised property? I, for one, doubt we will see any significant change - and that is the danger. The voters will become even more disillusioned, and where will they look then?
With trust in politicians at an all-time low, if Reform fails to deliver in local government - and indeed in Parliament - as I suspect will be the case, the potential outcome, while unpalatable, is no longer unimaginable.
