Sir Christopher Chope 'not surprised' over by-election result
MP SIR Christopher Chope has described the Conservative government's by-election losses as an "organisational failure", saying the party needs "a change of direction".
In the early hours of this morning, the Conservative party lost the Tory stronghold of Tiverton and Honiton to the Lib Dems as well as surrendering Wakefield to Labour.
Conservative Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden quit after the results were announced, saying he and Tory supporters are “distressed and disappointed by recent events”, telling Mr Johnson “someone must take responsibility”.
Conservative MP for Christchurch, Sir Christopher said Mr Dowden was ‘carrying the can’ for the ‘organisational failure, which resulted in two adverse by-election results.’
Speaking about the result, Sir Christopher said: “It's for the government now to take some action and respond to the strong feeling coming out of those by-elections, that they need to use the power they've got to make change.
“I don't think the party needs a change in leadership, but what I think it does need is a change of direction. It needs to be more sure-footed and clear headed in implementing, Conservative policies.
“And it's because of a lack of clarity and indecision and conflicting policies and all rest of it that I think that the people have said we're expressing our disillusionment with what's happening but there's plenty of time, with a majority of 80 odd, for the government to recover and I hope that it does.”
He added: “It would be for others to analyse the particular reasons why people voted in the way that they did but I think my own assessment is that the strongest, disillusionment is caused by feeling on the part of the people that we're not speaking with with one voice and implementing, conservative policies, like for example, low taxes, promoting individual freedom and responsibility and all the rest of it.
“The only good bit seems to be our solidarity and support for Ukraine. That seems to be going down well, but the other stuff is,to, decisive and vague for people to be able to get behind.”
Responding to whether he is concerned for his own seat, Sir Christopher said: “Well, the result wasn't a surprise to me, if you think back in 1993, the Conservatives lost Christchurch in a by-election, and the result then was even worse, for the Conservatives in Christchurch than it was in Honiton.
“And yet, at the next General Election in 1997, the Conservatives won back the seat in Christchurch and I was elected.
“If you apply the past as a guide for the future, then the fact that there's been a bad loss in Honiton doesn't mean that the seat is not going to be regained by the Conservatives in the next general election because history says it will be.”
The Daily Echo also contacted MPs Tobias Ellwood, Julian Lewis, Sir Robert Syms, Michael Tomlinson, Simon Hoare, Richard Drax, Conor Burns and Sir Desmond Swayne.
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As featured in the Daily Echo 24 June 2022
