General Election 2017

Yesterday, I resigned as the Prime Minister’s adviser.

Clearly, the general election result was a huge disappointment. What lay behind the result will no doubt be the subject of detailed analysis for many months. My immediate reaction, however, is this. The Conservatives won more than 13.6 million votes, which is an historically high number, and more than Tony Blair won in all three of his election victories. The reason for the disappointing result was not the absence of support for Theresa May and the Conservatives but an unexpected surge in support for Labour.

One can speculate about the reasons for this, but the simple truth is that Britain is a divided country: many are tired of austerity, many remain frustrated or angry about Brexit, and many younger people feel they lack the opportunities enjoyed by their parents’ generation.

Ironically, the Prime Minister is the one political leader who understands this division, and who has been working to address it since she became Prime Minister last July. The Conservative election campaign, however, failed to get this and Theresa’s positive plan for the future across. It also failed to notice the surge in Labour support, because modern campaigning techniques require ever-narrower targeting of specific voters, and we were not talking to the people who decided to vote for Labour.

I take responsibility for my part in this election campaign, which was the oversight of our policy programme. In particular, I regret the decision not to include in the manifesto a ceiling as well as a floor in our proposal to help meet the increasing cost of social care. But I would like to make clear that the bizarre media reports about my own role in the policy’s inclusion are wrong: it had been the subject of many months of work within Whitehall, and it was not my personal pet project. I chose not to rebut these reports as they were published, as to have done so would have been a distraction for the campaign. But I take responsibility for the content of the whole manifesto, which I continue to believe is an honest and strong programme for government.

Turning to the future, nothing matters more than the good government of the country. The Brexit negotiations are due to begin, and if the United Kingdom is to get the right deal, there is no time to waste. I hope the Conservative Party in Parliament gets behind the Prime Minister, and allows her the political space to negotiate that deal.

In the meantime, I want to place on record my sorrow for the Conservative Members of Parliament who lost their seats, several of whom are close friends. I want to reaffirm my ongoing support for the Conservative Party and its principles. And I want to encourage all Conservatives to come through this difficult period, unite behind the Prime Minister, and focus on the need to heal the divisions in our country.

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Don Quixote said:

They can blame May's team all they want, but the blame rests entirely with May. She has to go, and she must say by when she will be gone. Her clinging on is not stability. We need a competent PM.


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Stato said:

It will be interesting to see what happens next in the Labour Party. Corbyn didn't win the election, but he proved that he can win seats. However, he is still 56 seats behind the Tories and 61+ seats off winning a majority.

There now seems to be a great opportunity for Labour to make the next step forward, but it needs a return to a big tent approach. That would seem possible if the right now stop trying to undermine and support Corbyn as a viable alternative, but it would also need Corbyn and Momentum to meet them part of the way. This doesn't necessarily require big changes to policy, but does need people to be grown up about compromise.

Momentum has to realise that to win over those who would worry about voting for Corbyn they are going to need people like Dan Jarvis, Stella Creasy, Jess Phillips; they are going to have to realise that centrist voters are going to be far more accepting of the same policies coming out of the mouth of a shadow home secretary if the person espousing them is Kier Starmer rather than Diane Abbott.

The right wing has to realise that the Blair years are not coming back, toe the new party line and work to elect a leader, even though they don't agree with him about everything. That is what those on the left had to do (with varying degrees of success) when Wilson was in charge.

Knowing the history of the Labour party, I don't expect it will happen. There is truth to the old cliche that the only thing that the only thing the Labour Party hates more than the Tories is the rest of the Labour Party, but if Jeremy Corbyn really wants a new type of politics, he has to reach out past internal disagreements and seek the support of those who could help him do it. He can now do this from a position of strength and the opportunity is not likely to come again soon.

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Stato said:

The right wing has to realise that the Blair years are not coming back, toe the new party line and work to elect a leader, even though they don't agree with him about everything. That is what those on the left had to do (with varying degrees of success) when Wilson was in charge.

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Machiavelli said:

Spot on. Corbyn needs to seize the initiative now, and that involves getting a wider range of PLP members involved. The one thing I disagree with you is about moving Starmer to Home Sec. He's got as big a job in the shadow cabinet as any at the moment, and is doing a decent job. One thing Cameron did well was to minimise the number of re-shuffles. I do think that Corbyn should reach out beyond the Labour Party though, and the best way he can do that is to back PR. It's patently obvious that the current voting system is not fit for purpose. Even the Tories have just returned their highest percentage vote since the 1980s, and that doesn't result in a clear majority.

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brightn'ove said:

"Labour will take us back to the 1970s"

[tweet]873438866111332352[/tweet]

What a ****ing disgrace. Can't see her more centrist backbenchers putting up with that.

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Mustafa said:

Theresa May is to launch her extreme plans to regulate the internet, despite not winning a majority.

This is one of her more destructive and draconian policies, which experts almost unanimously agree would not be at all useful in countering terrorism, but will increase her power to spy on regular people. Ending encryption like she is proposing would be incredibly damaging to our tech and financial industries.

Theresa May to launch extreme internet plans despite not winning majority

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seagulls4ever said:

I don't see the problem with a vote on the abortion limit as long as it is a free vote, which it will be. We have these kind of votes from time to time anyway. The last time parliament voted on the abortion limit was in 2008. Since then, move evidence has come to light. Our abortion limit is very late compared to most other countries. 24 weeks, or 6 months. Babies can survive at 21 weeks. If a baby is born at 22 weeks, survives, and you kill it then it's murder. If you abort it at the same stage it's not in the eyes of the law. There are arguments for reducing it. Parliament will have an evidenced based debate. You're still allowed to abort at any stage if there is danger to the mum's life.

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spring hall convert said:

It's now being said the Tories will concede a vote on decreased time limits for abortion in return for DUP support

Again, I ask extreme Brexiteers if this is a price worth paying for your fantasy. You are playing brinkmanship with the lives of women up and down the country. Your sisters, your daughters.

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Jim D said:

It'll go the same way as the LibDems referendum on PR - rejected.

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East Preston Gull said:

I still want Brexit and voted tory as always. Unfortunately Tess gambled and lost so she should remove herself from the role of primeminister immediately.

It appears that the only hope for your remain dreams was Lib Dem and they are politically dead.

We either go for another election or the Brexit negotiations should go ahead with the Labour left and Conservative right ceasing hostilities for 2 years as we leave the EU.

If chukka chups and his Blairrites team up with Anna Sudbury and the tory remainers they can leave their respective parties and join the Lib Dems.

Brexit is happening and their is no way back for the remainers.




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Jim D said:

It'll go the same way as the LibDems referendum on PR - rejected.

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