12-04-2016, 10:32 AM
The Tory party could lose the next general election if Theresa May alienates its core of moderate supporters by imitating Ukip and pushing through a hard Brexit, a group of former Conservative ministers and MPs says. The warning to the prime minister from the party’s senior ranks comes after Tory voters turned to the pro-EU Lib Dems in droves in Thursday’s Richmond Park byelection, delivering one of the biggest electoral shocks of recent times. As recriminations grew among Conservative and Labour supporters over the outcome – which saw the Lib Dems make their first parliamentary byelection gain in a decade with a 21.75% swing from pro-Brexit former Tory MP Zac Goldsmith – Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, told Conservatives that his party was now targeting dozens of Tory seats.
Top Tories: hard Brexit stance could lose us next election | Politics | The Guardian
In an interview with the Guardian, Sarah Olney said her victory over Zac Goldsmith on a 21.5% swing was secured thanks to voters who felt the prime minister was only focusing on the part of the population that voted to leave the EU. “What I found when I was talking to voters is an awful lot of people who’ve never voted anything else but Tory said they were going to vote for us,” she said, arguing that people back the Conservatives for “stability, security and economic competence”. “The referendum result and Theresa May’s response to it has blown all that out of the water – people no longer trust them.”
Push for hard Brexit led to Richmond Park win, says new Lib Dem MP | Politics | The Guardian