Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, she attributed the party’s worst-ever defeat - in which it was reduced to just 121 seats - to the party pursuing an “idiotic strategy of intermittently and inconsistently making ‘Tory Right’ noises which disintegrated when set against our liberal Conservative record”.
“I say again, whatever some of my colleagues think, the voters aren’t mugs: they saw what we did in office and ignored what we insincerely said while campaigning,” she added.
The former home secretary - who retained her seat of Fareham and Waterlooville but with a much-reduced majority - blamed “high taxes” and “high immigration” as well as “insane political correctness” she believed the party had embraced for the scale of the defeat.
I understand your point but seeing that labours vote share only increased by 1.7% shows that very few Tories are moving left or centre. Most Tories either protest voted by moving to reform or they simply endorse policies further to the right.
Pretty sure Reform has plenty of x-labour racists too.
Centre Tories seam to have gone LibDems. Or not voted all.
Tory 2019 : 13,966,454 votes
Tory 2024 : 6,827,311 , Reform : 4,117,221
It will be interesting to see how many voters stick with the Lib Dems in the next election.
If the Tories do what we think they are about to do, I think the last of the right-centre voters clinging on will give up on them, and further swell the LibDems.