Jonathan Reynolds on Reform: ‘Now…they will get the scrutiny they deserve’
On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips pointed out that Labour had the smallest vote share of any election-winning party – and asked the business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds if it was sustainable that votes for smaller parties like Reform and the Greens did not translate into seats.
Reynolds argued that Labour’s successful campaign under this electoral system gave them a legitimate mandate to govern, and claimed that smaller parties were given ‘far less scrutiny’ because they’re not seen as ‘parties of government’. Reynolds also implied that many people who voted for Reform don’t really know their policies.
Tom Baldwin, Keir Starmer’s biographer, also said that the article Labour aides are reading right now is The Death of Deliverism about how Joe Biden’s achievements did not translate into support – which they see as a warning.
Suella Braverman: ‘I have looked at the Reform party’
Over on GB News, Camilla Tominey pressed Suella Braverman on whether she would consider defecting to the Reform party, after Braverman conceded that the Tories had failed to provide ‘hope’ to voters. Despite dodging the question several times, Braverman did not dispute that Reform had ‘outconservatived’ the Conservatives, before eventually admitting that she had ‘looked at the Reform party because I have been listening to what they are saying’.
'I have looked at the Reform Party…'
— GB News (@GBNEWS) July 7, 2024
Former Home Secretary, @SuellaBraverman, is pressed and accused of dodging @CamillaTominey's questions on whether she wants to join Nigel Farage at Reform UK. pic.twitter.com/TwSRm3hAn6
Victoria Atkins: ‘The country is…instinctively conservative’
The former Health Secretary (and likely leadership candidate) had her own take on the general election: support for Labour, she said, is ‘spread very thinly, a little bit like margarine’. She suggested that the country’s values were ‘instinctively conservative’, and that the Tories needed to deliver on policies that reflect that.
Robert Jenrick: ‘Migration was at the heart of it’
Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick agreed with Atkins that it was the failure to deliver on promises that caused the Conservatives’ heavy defeat. He argued that the inability to tackle immigration was the most important factor, saying his party did not ‘do whatever it takes’ to make progress on the issue.
Jenrick pointed out that in two thirds of the constituencies the Conservatives lost, the margin of defeat was smaller than the Reform vote. Neither Jenrick nor Atkins would comment on whether they will run for the Conservative leadership.
Ed Davey: ‘We’re going to be constructive opposition’
Laura Kuenssberg asked Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey how his party would deal with the new Labour government, having criticised the Conservatives during their campaign. Davey said that the Lib Dems would urge the government to make progress on the issues around which his party campaigned: health and care, the cost of living, and the sewage scandal. Davey said the Lib Dems had already called for an emergency budget on health and care, and wanted to draw attention to the issue of unpaid family carers.
Reform Chairman Richard Tice: ‘I think genuinely we do become the real opposition’
Back on GB News, Camilla Tominey asked Richard Tice if he was happy with Reform’s four million votes, after Nigel Farage had suggested in an interview he hoped for six million. The Reform chairman said that voter turnout was low, but that his party’s vote share was ‘a real shock to the establishment’. Tice argued that the Tories were ‘completely split asunder’ and were not a cohesive force. He claimed that his party had ‘the policies that…will save this country’.
Andy Burnham: ‘commit early to the Northern Powerhouse’
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham pointed out that the city’s economic growth has been faster than the national average, and told the new Prime Minister to deliver on Tory commitments that were never enacted. Burnham suggested that beginning work on the new railway between Manchester and Liverpool would lead to people in the north sticking with Labour for the next parliamentary term, and said Manchester was also ready to be part of building the 1.5 million homes Labour plan to build this term.
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