Conservatives dealing with 'electoral Armageddon' - ex-minister Sir Robert Buckland

The Conservative Occasion is dealing with “electoral Armageddon”, a former cupboard minister has warned.

Sir Robert Buckland, the primary Tory of the night time confirmed to have misplaced his seat, stated too many in his celebration had been targeted on “private agendas and jockeying for place” as a substitute of “concentrating on doing the job that they had been elected to do”.

The exit ballot for the BBC, ITV and Sky suggests the Conservatives will maintain on to 131 seats, down 241, whereas Labour will emerge as the most important celebration with 410.

If confirmed, it could be the worst consequence for the Conservatives in trendy historical past.

Talking to the BBC, Sir Robert stated he was “fed up with efficiency artwork politics”.

“I’ve watched colleagues within the Conservative Occasion strike poses, write inflammatory op-eds, and say silly issues they don’t have any proof for, as a substitute of concentrating on doing the job that they had been elected to do,” the previous justice secretary stated.

Requested whether or not he was referring to former house secretary Suella Braverman, who days earlier than polls opened revealed an article within the Every day Telegraph strongly important of the federal government, he stated: “Sure, and I am afraid that is not an remoted instance.”

“I am fed up of non-public agendas and jockeying for place. The reality is now with the Conservatives dealing with electoral Armageddon, it will be like a gaggle of bald males arguing over a comb.

“It isn’t about left and proper. It is about those that need to come into politics to do issues, somewhat than to be one thing.”

Sir Robert added that for the celebration to maneuver additional to the precise due to the consequence could be a “disastrous mistake and it could ship us into the abyss”.

Different senior Conservatives have additionally acknowledged the celebration is heading for defeat and begun discussing what introduced it to this place.

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, who’s broadly anticipated to lose in Central Devon, stated: “This can be a very troublesome second for the Conservative celebration and I’m clearly very sorry that quite a few my colleagues… [are not] going to be getting again to parliament.

“I believe when the historical past’s written of this we’ll recognise there have been many achievements that this authorities has had.”

Former enterprise secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg stated it was “clearly a horrible night time” for his celebration and that it had come to take its “core vote as a right”.

“We have to win voters at each single election. If you happen to take your base as a right….your voters will look to different events.”

He additionally stated he thought the celebration had made a mistake by ousting Boris Johnson, who led it to victory within the 2019 election however was compelled to step down as prime minister in 2022 following a collection of scandals.

“Voters anticipate the prime minister they’ve chosen to stay the prime minister and for it to be the voters who determine when that individual is modified,” Mr Rees-Mogg stated.

Former cupboard workplace minister Steve Baker, who BBC projections gave lower than a 1% probability of holding onto his seat, stated his celebration was having an “extremely troublesome night time”.

He stated Rishi Sunak had a “sensible thoughts” however acknowledged he had made errors throughout the marketing campaign, together with the choice to leave D-Day commemorations early, and that the outcomes seemed set to be “fairly devastating”.