STORY: The Conservatives are out of power in Britain for the first time in 14 years. How did it happen? And where do they go from here?
The Conservative Party have been in a really difficult situation ever since Boris Johnson was forced to resign as prime minister over the coronavirus lockdown Partygate scandal, and then his replacement, Liz Truss, led the country into economic crisis, and she had to resign in record short time.
Rishi Sunak had an unenviable inheritance from those two leaders and a big gap in the polls to try and close.
Unfortunately for him, nothing Rishi Sunak has tried has been able to close that gap.
And many Conservative lawmakers blame his slightly brittle, slightly tetchy style of leadership and lack of overall strategy for this.
There’s been a number of external factors which have also played into the difficulties the Conservatives have faced.
As Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would quite often cite, he would sort of say that the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic or the war in Ukraine is driving prices up – and of course, the cost of living crisis.
At the end of the day, the electorate has, sort of said perhaps it’s better to change tack, and maybe lay the blame for some of the malaise that there’s been in Britain for the last two or three years at the government’s door.
So where does the Conservative Party go from here? It seems likely that there’s going to be a very tough, very messy leadership election as different personalities compete to become the next leader of the party.
Now, you would imagine that someone on the right wing of the party might fare pretty well in that election, particularly if it goes to the Conservative Party membership who are to the right of the population at large.
However, that leader is also going to need to come up with a pitch for government which can appeal to the broad electorate, not just to the Conservative Party’s own members.
That balancing act for any future leader will be a really interesting one to watch, to see how they can navigate it.
