Public has ‘stopped listening’ to the Tories, cabinet minister accepts

The public has “stopped listening” to the Conservatives and Rishi Sunak should call an early election to shift the spotlight to Labour, a Cabinet minister has said.

The senior minister admitted that voters were “tired of Conservatives navel gazing” and expressed fears that members of the public were no longer paying attention to positive government announcements such as tax cuts.

Another minister suggested that Rishi Sunak’s vow last year to “stop the boats” carrying migrants across the Channel had ended up worsening the party’s standing with the public, given “it was clearly impossible to do that in any meaningful timeframe.”

The remarks came after the Conservatives’ poll ratings continued to decline despite a tax-cutting budget earlier this month which Downing Street had hoped would begin to reverse the party’s fortunes.

Mr Sunak’s aides fear that he may face a leadership challenge after the May 2 council elections, in which the party is expected to suffer heavy losses.

A Telegraph-Savanta poll put the Conservatives on 24 per cent last week, compared to 44 per cent of respondents saying that they intended to vote for Labour. Support for Reform UK, led by Richard Tice, is now at 11 per cent.

James Frayne, the founder of the Public First research agency, said there was now virtually “nothing at all” that the Conservatives could do to change public opinion of the party ahead of an election, given levels of disaffection among voters. Ministers have now begun to acknowledge this privately.

The Cabinet minister said: “The public have stopped listening. I think the public are a bit tired of politics in general and they are certainly tired of Conservatives navel gazing.

“The best prospect now for the party is for Starmer and his policies to come under scrutiny.

“The local elections are not going to bring the Labour Party under any great scrutiny. The only way that happens is a general election and that’s your chance to put your manifesto forward.”

The minister added: “I don’t see a huge amount of benefit in waiting. The summer could be fraught with difficult headlines and many boats crossing the Channel. I suspect that will play nicely for Reform.”

Gimmick politics

A senior Tory MP warned that one concern about waiting for an autumn election was that even if Mr Sunak’s Rwanda legislation succeeded in restarting deportation flights to the country, legal appeals by migrants could leave the planes half empty.

“Unless the planes are taking off full, the public are just going to think it’s a gimmick, and it will be a gimmick,” the MP said.

The second minister was more positive, saying that the tax cuts simply “haven’t been felt yet” but agreed that the best hope for the Conservatives now was increased scrutiny of Labour in an election campaign.

The minister said: “That’s the mechanism to transform things – scrutiny and the contrast [between the parties]. Labour has not been scrutinised properly – people think they’re going to come in anyway and it doesn’t matter.”

The minister added: “I think the only strategic [misstep] was making such a virtue of stopping the boats when it was clearly impossible to do that in any meaningful timeframe.”

Senior Tories believe that Red Wall voters in particular have become disaffected partly due to the gap between the Conservatives’ bold promises and delivery on curbing migration. The second minister said they favoured waiting until the autumn to call an election, saying: “I think we have to wait and something will turn up.”

In an interview with The Telegraph, Claire Coutinho, the Net Zero Secretary and a close ally of Mr Sunak, urged the Prime Minister to “keep going”.

She said: “We are fighting to win. And I think it’s critical that we do because what the Labour Party is presenting is a mish-mash of bad ideas which would take the country backwards. He inherited a difficult position. And he’s brought his usual intelligence and courage to the role in terms of making sure for example, in my area, that we can be sensible about our approach to net zero and protect households.”

A Government source said: “It has been a tough time for the country since the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but this year we are turning the corner with inflation down, taxes cut by £900 for the average worker and the economy forecast to grow.

“So the plan is working - it is making a difference to people’s lives – and we must continue to show voters the choice they have at the next election between our plan to grow the economy, create new opportunities and build a brighter a future, and Labour who have no plan and would take us right back to square one.”