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Tory chairman: 'Defeat in the East was painful'

BBC A man, Richard Fuller, is sat wearing a suit, with white shirt and a blue tieBBC
Richard Fuller says there are signs of "buyer's remorse" among people who voted for Labour

The interim chairman of the Conservative Party says July's election defeat in the East of England has been "very painful".

Richard Fuller, the MP for North Bedfordshire, said voters saw the Tories as divided and self serving.

But he claimed there were already signs of “buyers' remorse” as voters had second thoughts about Labour - and if the Conservative could show they had listened and made changes, the party could be "back in the frame at the next election".

Fuller was speaking as Conservatives prepared for their annual conference, meeting for the first time since their defeat in July, which saw them lose 35 seats across the East of England.

An illustrated map of the East of England, titled 'Election 2024'. The map is coloured to show which political parties were successful at the election. There are large patches of red and blue, one green, a handful of yellows for the Lib Dems, and three light blues, representing Reform UK
Labour (red) and the Conservatives (dark blue) were the dominant parties in the East, with the Liberal Democrats (yellow), Reform UK (light blue) and the Green Party (green) also represented

The Conservative share of the vote fell by more in the East of England than any other region.

Across the UK it was down 19.9%. In the East it fell by 26.5%.

'Perverse outcomes'

But the interim chairman doesn’t make any excuses.

"It was very much the fault of the parliamentary party," he says.

"The public said we didn’t look like we were united, we looked like we were self-serving and that affected our delivery of change on some of the important things that people voted for in 2019.

"They saw the election as an opportunity to see a change from that."

He described the result as "very painful". He said he had spent the summer having "hard" conversations with defeated candidates. He knows what it’s like to lose an election, having lost his former seat of Bedford in 2017.

But Fuller also believes that things may not be as bad for his party as the figures suggest.

"If you look at the figures, Labour got a very large majority on quite a paltry vote," he says.

"I think we can already see that there’s some buyers' remorse from people who wanted to get rid of the Conservative Party and now see what they’re getting with the Labour Party, particularly people who voted Reform, who can see that if you divide your vote you end up with very perverse outcomes.

"But the primary responsibility is now on the Conservatives.

"We need to demonstrate that we have listened to the public and that we’re making real changes so we can be in the frame at the next general election and people can say 'you’ve earned our trust again'".

Reuters Rishi Sunak concedes defeat in the July general election with a downcast expressionReuters
Fuller blames the loss of the general election in July on the parliamentary party

That process of rebuilding will begin at this weekend’s party conference in Birmingham, where a large part of the timetable will be given over to the four leadership candidates who will make their pitch to members.

As party chairman, Fuller is not publicly supporting any candidate. But he thinks the key to winning again is to "re-base ourselves on our core Conservative principles".

The big debate within the party is what to do about Reform UK, which won five seats across the country, three of them in the East of England, and taking thousands of votes from the Conservatives.

"We gave space for Reform to grow and that’s what we need to address," says Fuller, admitting that the Tories' stance on immigration and taxation were big factors.

"People who normally vote Conservative felt Reform were offering what they wanted better than we were," he says.

"The solution isn’t veering to the right or the left, it largely comes down to people wanting to know that they are putting their trust in a competent government with 'small c' principles."

'People's trust'

As party chairman it will be his job to open the conference on Sunday, the first time he has spoken at a party conference in 40 years.

He says he won’t be trying to gee up the membership, instead he wants to tell them that he has listened to their concerns, in particularly over the issue of candidate selection.

Many associations were angry at the way candidates were forced on them at the last election.

"Most people will not be coming to hear me," he says, adding: "What they’ll be interested in at this conference is the vision of our four leadership candidates."

He is proud that the party has already won seven council by-elections since the general election.

He says: "It shows that when Conservatives work hard in their local areas we win back people's trust."

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