Tories can win 2029 election with the ‘right leader’, claims former minister

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak said he would be resigning as Conservative Party leader when he delivered his final speech in Downing Street after losing the General Election.

He said he would step down “not immediately, but once the formal arrangements for selecting my successor are in place”.

Hopefuls include former ministers such as Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick and Victoria Atkins, who have given their perspectives on where the party went wrong prior to and during the election campaign.

Despite the party suffering the worst electoral loss in its history last week, former Post Office minister Mr Hollinrake said the Tories can be in government again at the next election with the right person at the helm.

He told Times Radio: “It should be a few months of a job, so we start on that process probably in September, and then we elect our leader by the end of the year – that’s the kind of timescale I would like.”

He added: “We lost heavily, but, as I say, not to a popular Labour Government. That’s an opportunity for us. If we get the right leader, we regroup, we unite behind that leader, we can win in 2029. That’s got to be our job.”

Mr Hollinrake said the Conservatives lost the election rather than Labour winning it, saying: “Look at the percentage share of the vote – no government has ever formed a majority with less than 34% of the vote, it’s quite incredible that’s the case.

“Hats off to them, the winner takes it all, they’ve got the spoils of victory. We need to hold them to account for all those things.”

The former cabinet minister, who managed to hold on to his seat in Thirsk and Malton albeit with a reduced majority, said the Tories are not in “any rush” to find a new party leader.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “We need to take a few months to decide exactly what went wrong and then decide the right person to take us forward and to present a viable challenge to the Labour Party, which I think we can do.”

He added: “We’ll go forward in terms of finding the right person. I don’t know who the right person will be, I don’t know who’s going to step forward right now.

“But that’s the work of the next few months. I think it’s very, very important that we present two good alternatives for our membership to have the final say on this, of course, but that will take a number of months to do that.”

New Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said the Government will still expect to be challenged in the Commons despite the Tories’ heavy electoral defeat.

He told the BBC: “Of course the Conservatives suffered a historic loss, but that doesn’t mean there’s no opposition in the House of Commons and, of course, we have the House of Lords to get any legislation through as well.

“And the key thing that you’ll see from this Labour Government is that we’re going to return both to the service of the British people, but also to the norms. The adults are back in the room.

“Announcements that we make will be made to Parliament, they will follow proper processes through Parliament, and we welcome them to be challenged and scrutinised by colleagues from different parties.

“That’s the right and proper way to do business and that’s what you will have from this Labour Government.”