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Tories are still biggest party on the right, claims Cleverly
Cleverly said Reform’s gains still leave the Conservatives ahead on the right, as the party won more than 1,450 council seats and 14 councils.
Sir James Cleverly argued the Conservatives remain the biggest right-of-centre party in British politics despite Reform winning more than 1,450 council seats in Thursday's elections.
Support for the Conservatives in England fell by 11 points compared to 2022, as the party lost more than half of its defended seats while Reform gained control of 14 councils including Suffolk, Essex, Sunderland and Barnsley.
Cleverly dismissed Reform as a "cult of personality," contrasting it with Conservative priorities like "reducing taxes, protecting borders, funding the armed forces." He told the BBC these represented centre-right governance.
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice called the results a "seismic earthquake in British politics," while Green Party leader Zack Polanski declared two-party politics "dead and buried."
Acknowledging the party is less than two years from major electoral defeat, Cleverly expressed "no doubt" the Conservatives will regain seats next year, predicting voters will reject Reform and the Greens after experiencing their governance.
The results of Britain ' s local elections a few days ago were expected in terms of the rise of the extreme right, but were surprising in terms of the size of the rise, as about a quarter of the seats in municipal and local councils went to the right-wing reform party, which for the first time became the first party in terms of the number of seats it held and the number of votes it had cast. [...]