PM must keep Tory switchers on side, warns report

Reform’s party conference is in full swing in Birmingham, as the leadership continue to hammer home their pivotal role in the Tory party’s disastrous result in July. But as Nigel Farage and friends celebrate their own success in the general election – with five MPs entering parliament – the group is looking to the future too. As Katy Balls wrote in this week’s Spectator, the right-wing party is keen to see more Labour upsets between now and the next national poll with Farage promising his party will cause trouble for Sir Keir’s lefty lot. How worried, then, should Starmer’s army be?

A new review published today by Labour Together – entitled ‘How Labour Won’ – suggests that, despite Farage’s threats, it’s the Tory to Labour switchers Starmer should keep focused on. The report, which is seen in No. 10 as the definitive account of the election, notes that ‘a decisive fraction’ of 2019’s Tories switched to Labour in July after mass frustration with the ‘corruption and incompetence’ of the Conservative crowd.