Right-wing Tories demand changes after defeat

Independent

21 July 2007

David Cameron faced a furious backlash from within his own party after the Conservatives slumped to third place in the Southall and Sedgefield by-elections.

MPs and activists demanded that Mr Cameron ditch his "heir to Blair" style after the party failed to make a breakthrough in Southall, despite a high-profile campaign that even put "David Cameron's Conservatives" on the ballot paper.

They issued a stark warning to Mr Cameron's high command after yesterday's poll results showed that the party failed to break out of third place, while the second-placed Liberal Democrats gained ground in an election that saw Labour's majority cut to 5,000.

The Liberal Democrats also overhauled the Tories in Tony Blair's former seat of Sedgefield, pushing the party into third place. Labour easily held the two seats, albeit with sharply reduced majorities.

Mr Cameron visited Southall five times in support of their controversial candidate Tony Lit, who joined the party just days before being selected as a candidate. He faced embarrassment after it emerged that Mr Lit attended a Labour fundraising dinner before his selection. Yesterday the Conservatives admitted the party "would like to have done better".

Caroline Spelman, the party chairman, said: "We have to build from the grass-roots up and I think the important thing David Cameron has given us is that his commitment to localism has brought us into the position of being the largest party of local government." But one MP said it was "idiotic" to put Mr Cameron's name on the ballot paper. He said: "This has just confirmed what people are saying in Parliament, that Cameron shouldn't be another Tony Blair. We have been there, done that. The future is in old-fashioned politics. That is what Cameron needs to do if he wants to be Prime Minister

"MPs are saying that Cameron is getting it wrong and he has got to get himself sorted out or the Tory party will do what it does. We will be out for another five years and people will say, 'Time for an old-fashioned politician'."

Mark Field, the Conservative MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, launched a stinging attack on Mr Cameron's handling of the campaign, warning that Mr Lit's selection "always had the makings of a fiasco". He told the Conservativehome website: "The way in which the sensitivities of local Tory activists were bypassed amounted to contempt towards our supporters and the electorate at large."

He added: "I believe that our by-election campaign in Ealing Southall may have done lasting damage to the party's outreach work in the British Asian communities."

The website carried a string of comments attacking the campaign, run by the MP Grant Shapps.

One comment said: "Maybe there will be a silver lining if this sham of spin and PR comes to an end. The country is crying out for a real alternative and sadly we offer nothing more than a fresh face." Another said: "Cameron seems cursed in all by-elections. This is very very very bad."

Others, however, insisted that Southall was a special case, arguing that the party was unlikely to do well in the seat.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, had faced warnings that a poor performance would increase pressure on his leadership. He hailed the results yesterday as "a blow to Brown and a disaster for David Cameron."

He said: "The Conservative Party put everything into this seat and got nothing out of it.

"Not only are they totally marginalised in the north of England, they are going nowhere in the South."