Conservative Party has ‘great opportunity’ despite local election losses and infighting, says Grant Shapps
The Tories have a “great opportunity” with a mood of “steely determination”, cabinet minister Grant Shapps has told Sky News, despite a local election drubbing and party infighting.
Speaking on the Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, the energy secretary also said he “completely and fundamentally” disagreed that the Conservatives cannot come back and win.
Former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg also played down the recent council losses and said local elections results were often bad for the incumbent government, arguing people should “not read too much” into them.
Meanwhile, Labour has branded the ruling party as “demoralised” and “full of internal conflicts and battles”.
It comes after former home secretary Priti Patel led criticism of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at a conference over the weekend, blaming the “centre of the party” for the recent local elections defeats.
She said the Tories “would not have seen over 1,000 of our friends and colleagues lose their seats” if centrists had “spent more time with us, listening, engaging”.
Anger at the council losses has been further fuelled by the decision to scale back post-Brexit plans to scrap EU laws.
Pressed over the feeling in the party over its current woes, Mr Shapps said: “Of course we have a great opportunity because we know that we’re buzzing with ideas, we’ve got a lot of energy to get things done still, but of course there are many, many challenges facing the country – and by the way they’d be facing whoever, whomever was in power at this point in time.
“I think we’ve got the ideas, but also the practical solutions – not to say, there aren’t many challenges along the way.
“I think that the mood is one of steely determination, I think… we know that there’s a job to do, that we’re on the side of the British people.”
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Tory election losses ‘moment of reflection’
Brushing aside criticism levelled by Ms Patel, Mr Shapps said: “I simply don’t agree… we still have more councillors in place than they [Labour’s Blair/Brown] would have done during the same point of the electoral cycle.
“So this idea that there’s something written in the stars, that somehow we cannot come back and win from our particular position at the moment, I completely and fundamentally disagree with.
“Actually people realise this country has gone through some pretty difficult times and of course we won’t have got everything right, but we have managed to steer the country through it, roll out vaccines or provide up to half of people’s typical energy bill this winter… Rishi Sunak actually has stabilised the party.”
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Conservatives seem ‘demoralised’
Mr Rees-Mogg said: “It’s obviously difficult when a party has been in office for 13 years, but Rishi Sunak has been getting on with business.
“Local election results are often bad for incumbent governments.
“They were bad for Tony Blair and he then went on to win majorities. They were terrible for Margaret Thatcher, who then went on to win very big majorities.
“So I wouldn’t read too much into local elections.”
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He also said it was a mistake to get rid of Mr Johnson, but deposing Mr Sunak would be an “even bigger mistake”.
Mr Rees-Mogg said: “The Tory party would be toast if we change leader again… but that doesn’t mean we agree with him on every policy.”
Labour frontbencher Jonathan Reynolds told Ridge: “I am not an objective observer of the Conservative Party, but I think it seems quite demoralised and as ever, you know, full of internal conflicts and battles.
“I look at Conservative MPs and I think to be honest, many of them are looking perhaps to a post-election period in the succession and who might take over. But look, we can’t be distracted by that.”
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He added: “The scale of the challenge therefore for Labour, it’s not just turning around an economy that hasn’t functioned very well for 13 years, it’s the complete reform and delivery of public services in a way where the need, the scale, of that, I don’t think has ever been greater.
“What we saw in those local elections was the Conservative Party rejected and people choosing Labour over the Conservatives, but we know we’ve got more to do.
“None of us are complacent, we’ve got to get that message across of our ambition, of the hope, we want to deliver back to the country, and why these specific policies that we’ve got deserve a hearing and that they are the answers to the problems.
“We know we’ve got more to do, but I don’t accept the case that we’re not putting forward specific policies.”
More than 100 politicians from 24 different countries, including the UK, the US and the EU, have written a joint letter condemning China over the “arbitrary detention and unfair trial” of Jimmy Lai, a tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner.
The parliamentarians, led by senior British Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, are “urgently” demanding the immediate release of the 77-year-old British citizen, who has been held in solitary confinement at a maximum security prison in Hong Kong for almost four years.
The letter – which will be embarrassing for Beijing – was made public on the eve of Mr Lai’s trial resuming and on the day after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a G20 summit of economic powers in Brazil.
It also comes as Hong Kong jailed 45 pro-democracy activists.
The group of politicians, who also include representatives from Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany, Ukraine and France, said Mr Lai’s treatment was “inhumane”.
“He is being tried on trumped-up charges arising from his peaceful promotion of democracy, his journalism and his human rights advocacy,” they wrote in the letter, which has been seen by Sky News.
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Starmer meets Chinese president
“The world is watching as the rule of law, media freedom and human rights in Hong Kong are eroded and undermined.
“We stand together in our defence of these fundamental freedoms and in our demand that Jimmy Lai be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Sir Keir raised the case of Mr Lai during remarks released at the start of his talks with Mr Xi on Monday – the first meeting between a British prime minister and the Chinese leader in six years.
The prime minister could be heard expressing concerns about reports of Mr Lai’s deteriorating health. However, he did not appear to call for his immediate release.
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From October: ‘This is what Hong Kong is’
Ms Kearns, the MP for Rutland and Stamford in the East Midlands, said the meeting had been an opportunity to be unequivocal that the UK expects Mr Lai to be freed.
“Jimmy Lai is being inhumanely persecuted for standing up for basic human values,” she said in a statement, released alongside the letter.
“He represents the flame of freedom millions seek around the world.
“We have a duty to fight for Jimmy Lai as a British citizen, and to take a stand against the Chinese Community Party’s erosion of rule of law in Hong Kong.
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“This letter represents the strength of international feeling and commitment of parliamentarians globally to securing Jimmy Lai’s immediate release and return to the UK with his family.”
Mr Lai was famously the proprietor of the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily in Hong Kong, which wrote scathing reports about the local authorities and the communist government in mainland China after Britain handed back the territory to Beijing in 1997.
The tabloid was a strong supporter of pro-democracy protesters who took to the streets of Hong Kong to demonstrate against the government in 2019.
But the media mogul was arrested the following year – one of the first victims of a draconian new security law imposed by the Chinese Communist Party.
His newspaper was closed after his bank accounts were frozen.
Mr Lai has since been convicted of illegal assembly and fraud. He is now on trial for sedition over articles published in Apple Daily.
World
Hong Kong jails 45 pro-democracy activists after accusing them of trying to overthrow the city’s government
Forty-five pro-democracy activists have been jailed in Hong Kong’s largest ever national security trial.
The activists sentenced with jail terms ranging from four years to ten years were accused of conspiracy to commit subversion after holding an unofficial primary election in Hong Kong in 2020.
They were arrested in 2021.
Hong Kong authorities say the defendants were trying to overthrow the territory’s government.
Democracy activist Benny Tai received the longest sentence of ten years. He became the face of the movement when thousands of protesters took to the city’s streets during the “Umbrella Movement” demonstrations.
However, Hong Kong officials accused him of being behind the plan to organise elections to select candidates.
Tai had pleaded guilty, his lawyers argued he believed his election plan was allowed under the city’s Basic Law.
Another prominent activist Joshua Wong received a sentence of more than four years.
Joshua Wong was sentenced to more than four years Pic: AP
Wong became one of the leading figures in the protests. His activism started as a 15 year old when he spearheaded a huge rally against a government plan to change the school curriculum.
Then in 2019 Hong Kong erupted in protests after the city’s government proposed a bill that would allow extradition to mainland China. It peaked in June 2019 when Amnesty International reported that up to two million people marched on the streets, paralysing parts of Hong Kong’s business district.
The extradition bill was later dropped but it had ignited a movement demanding political change and freedom to elect their own leaders in Hong Kong.
China’s central government called the protests “riots” that could not continue.
Hong Kong introduced a national security law in the aftermath of the protests.
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A woman is taken away by police outside the court Pic: Reuters
The US has called the trial “politically motivated”.
Dozens of family and friends of the accused were waiting for the verdict outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Court.
British citizen and media mogul Jimmy Lai is due to testify on Wednesday.
Meeting on the sidelines of the G20 in Brazil, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told China’s President Xi Jinping he’s concerned about the health of Lai.
He faces charges of fraud and the 2019 protests. He has also been charged with sedition and collusion with foreign forces.
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