After losing 474 council seats and their West Midlands mayor, Mark Harper calls for everyone to get behind the prime minister ahead of a national vote.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper has insisted Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives are “up for the fight” of a general election, despite their terrible results in this week’s local contests.
The party lost 474 councillors across the country after Thursday’s vote, as well as high-profile mayoral races – seeing the West Midlands mayor Andy Street booted out by Labour in a tightly fought contest.
Yet Mr Harper insisted the best response for the Tories was to support the prime minister and prepare for the general election, which is expected later this year.
Talking to Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, the minister said: “It is always incredibly disappointing when you lose hardworking councillors, police and crime commissioners and fantastic mayors like Andy Street… it was a testament to him that that result was so close… so I can understand people being disappointed by that.
“But I think the key thing that people need to do now is get behind the prime minister, focus on the things the government is focused on delivering – the British people’s priorities around the economy, dealing with migration – and get out there and take that fight to the country ahead of the general election.”
Pointing to analysis by Sky News’ election expert Professor Michael Thrasher, which showed Labour was on course to be the largest party after the general election, but not have an overall majority, Mr Harper said his rivals hadn’t “sealed the deal with the public – so that means there is a fight to be had”.
He added: “The prime minister is up for that fight, I am up for that fight and I know the Conservative Party is up for it.
“We have to focus on delivering on people’s priorities – that’s what the prime minister is doing – and then we have to get out there and sell that message and set out what we would do after the election with a Conservative victory.”
Some had thought a poor set of local election results could see an internal uprising against Mr Sunak and the possibility of a leadership challenge ahead of the next election.
But former Tory minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns – who has already written a letter of no confidence in the prime minister – told Sky News there was no momentum in the party to oust their leader again.
“No MPs are not putting the letters in, and it is not going anywhere,” she told Trevor Phillips. “I’ve tried, as you know. So I think now we’ve got to take the fight to Labour.”
However, she did appeal to Mr Sunak to bring Boris Johnson back to the “frontline of politics” and a return to “real common sense Conservatism” in order to win back voters.
Asked about outgoing Conservative mayor Mr Street’s appeal to the party not to “drift” to the right, Dame Andrea called him a “leftie” and pointed to the party’s one success story out of the local elections – Lord Ben Houchen retaining his seat as Tees Valley mayor.