Ben Houchen: Tories vying to replace Sunak are bidding for my support

Conservative mayor Ben Houchen has revealed Tory leadership hopefuls vying to replace Rishi Sunak are bidding for his support ahead of the general election.

In an interview with The Telegraph, the mayor for Tees Valley said he had been contacted by several prominent Conservatives asking what direction he thinks the party should take after the next national vote in an apparent attempt to lay the groundwork for a future leadership contest.

He urged “pathetic” MPs who are “on manoeuvres” to stop what they’re doing and focus instead on rallying behind Mr Sunak, warning their behaviour is “costing the Conservative Party”.

He also said ousting the Prime Minister before the next election would be “catastrophic” and told Tory plotters they will be responsible for the party’s demise if they force another leadership change.

Dubbed the Boris Johnson of the North, Lord Houchen’s fate at the mayoral elections on May 2 will give an early indication of Mr Sunak’s ability to cling on in the Red Wall.

Having secured a landslide victory in 2021 with 73 per cent of the vote in Tees Valley, he is seen as a major Tory asset in the North. But he could be in for an equally stunning defeat in May after a survey in March put him 25 points behind his Labour rival, Chris McEwan.

Speaking to The Telegraph in Yarm, near Darlington, Lord Houchen – who was made a peer in Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list – dismissed the poll as “nonsense”, while acknowledging things are looking bleak for the Tories on a national level.

He said Mr Sunak “has to make progress” on immigration – which will play a “very significant role” in the next general election – and admitted that no one in Teesside would be able to name the Prime Minister’s five priorities.

But he urged those plotting against Mr Sunak or smoothing the way for their own leadership bids to stop and focus on the task at hand.

“I think those people who are on manoeuvres as potentially being interested in being the next leader of the Conservative Party, they all just need to stop what they’re doing,” he said.

“And they’re all doing it. And it is frustrating to see. I’ve been contacted by a number of them, and it’s this type of behaviour that is costing the Conservative Party.”

He refused to name any names, but gave an insight into the messages he had received.

He added: “People don’t come out and say ‘I’m going to be standing for leader, I want your support’. It’s all ‘hi, Ben, we haven’t caught up recently, how are things going, we’d really like to help, we should catch up soon, how do you think it’s going to go in the general election?’.

“And then there’s kind of a little bit of, ‘oh, well, you know, if things don’t go well, have you given any thought to which direction the party should go in, and I’m really keen to help’, and it’s all that kind of stuff.

“And it gives them plausible deniability to be able to say, ‘oh well, I haven’t been campaigning’, when everybody knows exactly what they’re doing, and it’s not subtle. It’s a bit pathetic.”

Lord Houchen insisted it has to be Mr Sunak to lead the Tories into the next election, but said the Prime Minister “needs more time” for his plan to “bed in” – suggesting he should wait until October or November to call a vote.

Asked what would happen if a general election was held tomorrow, he heavily suggested the Conservatives would lose.

“You know the polls as well as I do, right? We’ve got to give people the excuse to vote for us, we haven’t done enough to be able to do that yet,” he said.

“There’s still plenty of time. But we’ve still got to do a lot more convincing. And we got to give people the excuse to vote for us that they’re looking for. But I don’t think we are yet in a place where we’ve given them that excuse.”

In the meantime, he has a stern message for any Tory plotters seeking to oust the Prime Minister before the next national vote – a move he says would be “completely catastrophic” for the party.

“I think that is just the final nail in the coffin, because the people will completely turn off from the Conservative Party. We will not be considered a serious party at the next general election,” he said.

“And so if those people who are considering it actually think that they want to put that into action, then they will be responsible for the Conservative Party losing the next general election.”

He said he got “irritated” by “stupid plots”, adding: “Changing prime minister again for what would be, what, the fourth or fifth time in two years, you get destroyed at the polls if people think that is the right outcome.”

Lord Houchen stands by his assertion that the Tories were wrong to oust Mr Johnson in 2021, but won’t speculate on a possible comeback.

However, he does think Mr Sunak should embrace the spirit of Mr Johnson – and indeed Lord Cameron, Sir Tony Blair and Sir Keir Starmer – when it comes to courting the centre ground, as that is “where elections are won”.

While he argues the Red Wall will be “extremely important” at the next national vote, he said it is wrong to suggest the Conservatives have to choose between “Sevenoaks or Redcar” when making their bid to the public.

“The general election is always won in the centre ground. Look what Keir Starmer’s trying to do, look what Tony Blair did, look what David Cameron did, look what Boris has done,” he said.

“That’s where I think, ultimately, the election will be won and lost. And you can do that by appealing to people who live in north-west Hampshire and people who live in Teesside.”

A Tory loss in Teesside would be widely perceived as a sign Mr Sunak has lost his grip on the traditional Labour heartlands that have fallen to the Conservatives in recent years. The Prime Minister would have a lot to answer for – and Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the committee, might find a few more letters from frustrated Conservative MPs landing on his doorstep.

A win would be a welcome boost for Mr Sunak and a surprise blow for Sir Keir, who is hoping to show he is capable of reclaiming the Red Wall by wiping out Lord Houchen and Andy Street, the West Midlands mayor, in one fell swoop.

But Lord Houchen is reluctant to draw parallels between the ballot in May and the next general election, as he has “always” positioned himself as a Mayor first and a Tory second.

“My vote is so much broader and more eclectic than what the Conservative Party vote will be at the general election. There is a significant proportion of the electorate who would not vote Conservative… but they would vote for me. That’s why ultimately it’s a local election.”

He added: “It depends on what the result is, right? If I lose by 20 points, then you probably can make a pretty strong assumption because I am locally more popular than the Conservative Party, so you can probably make a draw across.

“Whereas if I just win by, I don’t know, one vote or a couple of per cent, it’s very difficult to draw a read across because of the way in which the local vote is split.”

Asked by The Telegraph what they made of Lord Houchen, shoppers in central Darlington gave mixed reviews.

Clare, 70, who has traditionally voted for Labour or the Lib Dems, said she thought he had made a name for himself. For her, the “jury’s out”.

But Roy, 77, who backed Lord Houchen last time around, can’t bring himself to do it again.

“I have got a feeling he won’t get in this time,” he said. “Labour seems to be ruling the roost.”

Reflecting on his own future, Lord Houchen said he thinks it’s unlikely he’ll ever run to be an MP, and he certainly doesn’t want to speculate on whether he’d make a good Tory leader.

“I don’t plan whether I’m mayor or not ever leaving Teesside. This is my home, this is my life, and this is what I want to do,” he said.

For now, he’s only thinking three weeks ahead.

“My life ends on May 2. That’s the hurdle, right?”