Richard Holden admitted the Tories had suffered “a disappointing” night.
Speaking to GB News, Mr Holden said: “It was a disappointing result for us. Our candidates fought really hard during the campaign but yes it was a disappointing result.”
“But I think it's quite a disappointing result for Reform too. Back in the mid-2010s, they were getting 45 to 50% of the vote in some of these by elections and there were much better turnouts. I think the assumption everyone is making is that everybody who voted for them came from the Conservative side of things. But I don’t think that’s strictly true.
“I think we've put up a good fight with some good candidates. By-elections are an opportunity for people to have their say on local issues.
“We've seen over the last week or 10 days that Labour has no plan for the country. They've not got a policy background in place; they have U-turned on all of their major policy pledges.
"There's a good while to go before a general election and I'm sure all of these issues will be thrashed out over the next few months.”
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