, Columnist
UK Tories Should Use Their Time in Opposition Wisely
The Conservative Party needs to choose its next leader carefully.
Exit stage right.
Photographer: Tom Skipp/BloombergBereavement is said to be typically followed by five stages — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Many Tories are still markedly in the denial stage after the party’s worst electoral defeat in its long history. Anger is sure to follow a period of eerie calm following Thursday’s plebiscite.
Some senior Conservatives are taking comfort from the fact that the Labour Party’s vote share barely rose in England and actually declined in Wales — only outperforming the Scottish National Party north of the border. Tory voters deserted to the right-wing populist party, Reform, not Keir Starmer’s Labour, say these optimists.