The Tories have much to learn from their 1997 wipeout

If polls are anything to go by, Labour’s historic 1997 election win – 418 seats to the Tories’ 165 – is about to be dwarfed by this week’s vote. An exclusive survey for the Daily Telegraph recently predicted Labour would win 516 seats to the Tories’ 53. A political wipeout, in other words, seems to await Rishi Sunak and his government – their worst result ever. Hanging on to 165 seats in parliament, however woeful it seemed three decades ago, would put smiles of relief on most Conservative faces.

Back in 1997, there was still a residual sense of what the party actually stood for. The Tories were led by John Major, an essentially decent, softly spoken middle Englander with a taste for warm beer and cricket. He was everybody’s ideal next-door-neighbour, but as a prime minister, something of a washout.