By election results live: Tories ‘doomed to lose power’ without change of course, warns Lord Frost
Rishi Sunak should ditch green policies, says Tory peer
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Rishi Sunak is “doomed to lose power” if he does not change course ahead of the next general election, a Conservative peer has said.
Lord David Frost, the former Brexit negotiator, pointed to Labour’s defeat in Uxbridge and South Ruislip as evidence green policies are not popular as he called on the prime minister to ditch net zero goals.
In a direct rebuke of Mr Sunak’s five priorities for government, Lord Frost argued that the Tories’ two by-election defeats showed that “sticking to the plan” was not working.
The peer, who supported Liz Truss’s leadership campaign and has announced he will stand as an MP, said Mr Sunak needed to give the public “something to vote for” as he called for tax cuts.
“Getting inflation down is important but won’t be enough,” he wrote in The Daily Telegraph. “There is still time to change course, but it is running out.”
Elsewhere, Keir Starmer is delivering a speech to his party’s national policy forum this morning following, with Ulez and the controversial U-turn on child benefits police are likely to be discussed over the weekend.
Green Party third in all three by-elections
The Green Party finished third in all three by-elections fought on Thursday night.
The party’s one MP Caroline Lucas is standing down at the next election and Sian Berry will contest her Brighton Pavillion seat.
Ms Berry said in the Guardian on Thursday: "[Keir] Starmer is abandoning so many pledges, it’s sending a message to people on the left... they’re no longer the party to improve child benefit policies, control rents. Only Green MPs will be arguing for these things.”
“It’s not 1996’: Labour landslide ‘for the birds’, says senior Tory
Senior Tory Robert Buckland told The Independent: “Selby is a bad result, but the idea that it’s a harbinger of a Labour landslide is for the birds.
“It’s not too late for us – I don’t sense that we’re in a 1996 moment.”
The former justice secretary added: “Uxbridge is a very significant result. It shows Labour is not inspiring enthusiasm and they can be derailed by difficult issues. I wouldn’t be smoking the proverbial cigar if I was them.”
Mr Buckland said Mr Sunak should “set out where he wants to take the country in the next five years” – and warned the PM not to listen to any “glib solutions” on small boats or “go soft” on net zero policies, though green schemes had to be “fair” to hard-pressed families.
Swing from Tories to Labour was because Conservative voters stayed at home, party chair says
Conservative losses in Thursday’s (20 July) by elections were because Tory voters stayed at home, Greg Hands has said.
The Tory party chairman spoke to TalkTV after his party lost two safe seats as Labour gained Selby and Ainsty and the Liberal Democrats won in Somerton and Frome.
‘It would be bigger than ‘97’: Labour MP Thornberry
Top Labour MP Emily Thornberry has said that her party is “very cautious” despite the “encouraging” by-election results on Thursday night.
In her interview on Sky News, she added that a victory would be “bigger than ‘97” for Labour.
When will the next general election be?
Three UK constituencies went to the polls on Thursday night but they could all be among the shortest-serving MPs in living memory with a general election likely to be next year.
House of Commons rules mean elections have to be held no more than five years apart, which means the next vote must be no later than January 2025.
However, it is likely that the vote will be next spring or summer. Once a prime minister has declared a general election it will be held around 25 working days later.
Sunak ‘on course to be ejected’, say Tories
David Gauke, former Tory cabinet minister, wrote in the New Statesman that the results showed that the party was “under attack from all directions and very few of their MPs can be entirely confident their seats are safe”.
But the moderate Tory warned that a “desperate party may be susceptible to bad ideas to recover its position”.
Paul Goodman, the influential editor of ConservativeHome editor, said Mr Sunak was in a “bleak” position and was doomed for defeat unless he changed course.
“As matters stand, the prime minister is on course to be ejected from Downing Street,” he wrote.
Urging the PM to offer more, beyond the five pledges, he added: “Sunak and his team have no choice but to be radical. After all, there’s nothing much in his present position to consolidate.”
‘History makers'
Sir Keir Starmer is celebrating Labour’s success with a tweet from Selby Town Football Club.
His party won their biggest ever by-election overturn in the constituency on Thursday.
Sir Keir wrote: “Labour has made history in Selby and Ainsty.
“We will work hard to earn every vote to win the next general election and change our country for the better.”
Experts recover all relevant messages from Johnson’s phone
Technical experts have recovered all relevant messages from Boris Johnson's old phone that he had been advised not to use on security grounds and he will hand them over "unredacted" to the coronavirus inquiry, a spokesman for the ex-prime minister has said.
Boris Johnson’s spokesman said: “Boris Johnson is pleased that technical experts have now successfully recovered all relevant messages from the device. As repeatedly stated, he will now deliver this material in unredacted form to the inquiry.
“The inquiry process requires that a security check of this material is now made by the Cabinet Office. The timing of any further progress on delivery to the inquiry is therefore under the Cabinet Office’s control.
“It was always the case that Boris Johnson would pass this material to the inquiry and do everything possible to help it be recovered. A careful process approved by the Inquiry has been followed to ensure that this was successful.”
Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and West Ruislip was won by the Conservative Party after the former prime minister stepped down.
Labour yet to seal the deal, says senior Tory
A senior Tory MP told The Independent: “People are p****d off with us – no doubt about it, but there’s no real appetite for Labour.
“Tony Blair would have won Uxbridge, given the state of the economy. If the general election was held in a month’s time, Labour would win easily. But in six months, if the economy recovers a bit, who knows?”
Update: Johnson to hand over phone
Boris Johnson will hand over messages from his old mobile phone to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry after technical experts managed to recover them, his spokesman has said.
The apparent breakthrough announced on Friday came after he was told to stop using the device over security concerns after it emerged his number had been online for years.
He then reportedly forgot the passcode.
But his spokesman said that the former prime minister was "pleased that technical experts have now successfully recovered all relevant messages from the device".
"As repeatedly stated, he will now deliver this material in unredacted form to the inquiry," he added in a statement.
"The inquiry process requires that a security check of this material is now made by the Cabinet Office. The timing of any further progress on delivery to the inquiry is therefore under the Cabinet Office's control.
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