Tory mayor blames Rishi Sunak for ‘chaos’ as Labour takes 30-point ballot lead

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has blamed Rishi Sunak for Tory chaos as a new poll found Labour has opened up a 30-point lead over the Conservatives.

Days after posing with Mr Sunak to celebrate winning another term as mayor, Lord Houchen said the Conservatives are “fighting each other like rats in a sack” and the blame “ultimately lies with Rishi”. It comes after ex-Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi said he was stepping down at the election, joining more than 60 Tories who are throwing in the towel. His announcement followed the shock defection of Tory Natalie Elphicke to Labour at PMQs on Wednesday.

Lord Houchen’s victory in the Tees Valley was a rare bright spot for the Conservatives after a battering at the polls in last week’s local elections. The party lost nearly 500 council seats, the coveted West Midlands mayoral race and the Blackpool South by-election.

He told BBC Radio Tees: “Things don’t look great for the Conservative Party at the moment. There is still a way through but that way through is getting narrower by the day.”

Asked if Mr Sunak is to blame, he said: “If they’re fighting with each other like rats in a sack instead of saying to the public ‘this is what we’re going to do for you’, that doesn’t win elections. Obviously, it ultimately lies with Rishi but there are lots of people that need to get their act together, stop messing about and start talking to the public about what they can offer them, rather than just fighting with each other.”

Mr Sunak has tried to get on the front foot again this week, seizing on analysis that suggested the country was heading for a hung Parliament. But a new poll blew apart this prediction by handing Labour a 30-point poll lead over the Conservatives.

The YouGov survey carried out in the wake of the local elections put the Conservatives on only 18% compared to 48% for Labour, in the worst showing for the party since Mr Sunak became Prime Minister. The gap between Labour and the Tories is the largest it’s been since the aftermath of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget in 2022.

Right-wingers Reform UK were only five points behind the Conservatives on 13%, with the Lib Dems on 9% and the Greens on 7%, the survey for the Times found.

Mr Sunak had desperately seized on local elections analysis by Sky News that suggested Labour may not get an overall majority at the general election. Despite the battering the Tories took at the locals, where they lost nearly 500 council seats, the PM claimed the general election was not a “foregone conclusion”.

But top pollster Professor Sir John Curtice said the PM would be wrong to place his hopes on a hung Parliament based last week’s vote. He pointed out that the Sky News analysis, which concluded Labour isn’t on course to win a majority based on vote share, fails to take account of two key factors.

One is that around one in five people vote differently in local elections compared to nationals, so smaller parties like the Greens and the Liberal Democrats can perform better than they would at a general election. The analysis also doesn’t factor in potential Labour gains in Scotland – where no elections were held last week.