The most powerful elected Conservative politician in the UK has said the party that poses the biggest threat to the Conservatives in the 2029 election is the Conservatives.
Ben Houchen, the Mayor of the Tees Valley, represented a rare example of Tory electoral success earlier this year when he kept his role in the May local elections.
Just two months later, his party was reduced to its smallest size in the House of Commons since it was founded 190 years ago.
Houchen joined MPs Mel Stride and Danny Kruger on a panel analysing the reasons for that monumental defeat at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham this evening.
Asked whether the biggest challenge to the Tories in 2029 came from Labour, the Liberal Democrats or Reform, the mayor responded: ‘The Conservative Party is the biggest problem at the next election.
‘It is true. It’s why we’re Conservatives – you’d believe that if we put forward proper Conservative values in the right way to communicate with people we can win the next election.
‘We can win elections for decades to come, irrespective of what other parties put forward.
‘The only reason some of the parties – in particular, the Lib Dems and Reform – have done quite well is because of our failures, not their successes. So we are the biggest problem to our own success.’
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister who presided over that worst election result in Conservative history, is a relatively minor presence at his party’s conference.
He is making only one major speech, which came earlier today in a private event with party members.
In it, he joked that the conference was such a ‘hot ticket’ that he was surprised PM Keir Starmer ‘hasn’t asked someone to buy it for him’.
The conference is instead focusing on the four people vying to replace him as leader of the opposition: Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat.
All four will be making speeches to members on Wednesday, and they are participating in a gruelling series of Q&A and husting events across the conference’s four days.
Most headlines today focused on Badenoch, after she appeared to question the extent of maternity pay by describing it as ‘excessive’ in an interview with Times Radio this morning.
The former business secretary later wrote on X: ‘Contrary to what some have said, I clearly said the burden of regulation on businesses had gone too far … of course I believe in maternity pay!’
She was criticised for the original comments by leadership rival Robert Jenrick, who said in an event at the party conference: ‘I don’t agree with Kemi on this one.
‘I am a father of three young daughters. I want to see them get the support that they need when they enter the workplace.’
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