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‘We’re up for a fight’: General election ‘not a foregone conclusion’, Tory minister tells Sunday with Lewis Goodall
5 May 2024, 10:35 | Updated: 5 May 2024, 14:06
Mark Harper has insisted the result of the general election is not a foregone conclusion after the Conservatives suffered their worst electoral losses in decades.
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The Conservatives lost hundreds of councillors in the local elections, leaving them as the third biggest party locally after Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Labour also stormed to victory in 11 out of 12 of the mayoral races, winning in London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
The biggest upset of the week came on Saturday evening when the popular Tory candidate for the West Midlands mayoralty Andy Street lost out to Labour's Andy Parker by just 1,508 votes.
Despite this, Mr Harper told LBC's Sunday with Lewis Goodall it is time to rally around Rishi Sunak.
“They’re obviously a very disappointing set of results. It’s always disappointing when you lose hard-working councillors,” Mr Harper told LBC.
Listen to Sunday with Lewis Goodall on Global Player, the official LBC app.
Lewis Goodall analyses how Tories' plans were 'scuppered' by Andy Street's defeat
“It’s clear our supporters didn’t come out and vote,” the Transport Secretary went on.
“We’ve got to do more work to make sure they do.”
“All to play for…we’re up for a fight. The next election is not a foregone conclusion. We shouldn’t take votes for granted.”
Mr Harper went on to say that the government has a plan that is “working”, including inflation halving.
Pressed on why that is not reflected in the local election results, Mr Harper insisted: “We haven’t completed the job.”
Mr Harper was then asked by Lewis about Suella Braverman’s claims that Mr Sunak’s plan is “not working”, to which he said: “It is demonstrably working.”
“Everyone in the party should get behind the prime minister.”
Mr Sunak has insisted he is going to "get on with delivering the plan for the country", despite more poor local election results over the weekend.
Speaking after the local election results on Friday, but before Saturday's poor showing in the mayoral races, Mr Sunak said he remains confident saying that "Labour is not winning in places they admit they need", in a piece for the Telegraph.
Tory MP Paul Scully says Conservatives 'haven't helped themselves' as a party
“Thursday’s results showed that voters are frustrated and wondering why they should vote,” Mr Sunak said.
“The fact that Labour is not winning in places they admit they need for a majority shows that Keir Starmer’s lack of plan and vision is hurting them.
“We Conservatives have everything to fight for – and we will, because we are fighting for our values and our country’s future.”
