The Conservatives have a “long way to go” before they get back to being political contenders, Mel Stride has said.
While the shadow chancellor signalled the Tories did not deserve to win the general election, he said he was optimistic about the party’s future under Kemi Badenoch – who he described as an “interesting” individual the public will listen to.
Speaking to journalists in Westminster, the senior Tory said: “We have a long way to go in order to get back into political contention, but I believe we can do it, because I think that Labour victory last time round whilst wide is relatively shallow, and under 34% of the vote.
“We are in very volatile territory at the moment in which almost anything can happen in the future.”
In the summer’s general election, the Tories lost 251 seats in the House of Commons, their worst defeats in terms of constituencies in history.
Labour swept to power with a House of Commons majority of 174, and left a rump of the Tories with only 121 MPs to act as the official opposition.
Mr Stride said the Conservative Party “has once again got to become credible”.
“It’s got to be focused on the things that matter to people. It’s got to be an effective opposition. You’re going to see more and more of that as this parliament progresses,” he added.
The shadow chancellor suggested his party’s plans to return to power would not come together “overnight”, but would be subject to a long process over the course of the current Parliament.
On the Conservatives’ prospects at the next election, he said: “I’m actually very optimistic about the future. I think we can get there. And one of the reasons I think we can get there is I think Kemi is a great leader.
“What I’ve seen at first so far, she’s very clear in her principles, she’s very authentic, she’s very direct.”
He added: “I think something more than that, that’s important for electors up and down the country, she is actually quite interesting as an individual. She’s probably somebody you do turn the TV on to have a quick look at, rather than go off and make a cup of tea.”
Asked if the Tories deserved to lose the general election, Mr Stride said: “If the question is – did we do everything right? And really did we deserve to win? Then I don’t think anybody could argue that we did everything right; a very, very long way from it.”
The shadow chancellor argued the Covid pandemic, Ukraine and inflation were world events which had impacted the Tory government’s popularity.
But he added: “We’ve been around for 14 years. And what being around 14 years does is it deprives you the ability to readily recast yourself as an agent of change and so forth.”
He also pointed to Partygate, “behavioural issues”, and the election betting scandal as problems the Conservatives had made for themselves.
“All those kind of things that we could have done something about and didn’t,” Mr Stride said.
