Senior Tories Admit Things ‘Could Get Worse’ For Party Before They Get Better

The Conservatives must “not accept that this is as low as it gets” despite slumping to its worst election result ever last month, according to two senior party figures.

Both Andrew Bowie, shadow energy minister, and Mark Spencer, a former Cabinet Minister, said the Tories face a “very tricky” set of local elections next year that could see them suffer further losses.

They were both speaking to The Rundown podcast from PoliticsHome after the race to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative party leader got underway in earnest this week, with six candidates officially making it onto the ballot.

Spencer, who lost his Sherwood seat at the 4 July General Election, is backing ex-immigration minister Robert Jenrick to rebuild the Conservatives both in Parliament and in local government, having lost more than 2,000 councillors in the past few years.

“But we do need to brace ourselves that next May may well be quite tricky, whoever wins this leadership competition”, he said.

Because the seats up for grabs in 2025 were mostly last fought in 2021, when the Tories were still polling relatively well, Spencer said “we must not accept that we are at our lowest point right now, as a party”, and called for unity after years of internal rows which saw multiple leaders desposed by their own MPs.

Bowie, who is backing the early favourite Kemi Badenoch, warned both next May’s local elections, as well as elections to devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales in 2026 are going to be “very tricky” for the Tories as they try to recover.

“As Mark said, we cannot and we should not accept that this is as low as it gets, it could get worse”, he added.

“From November, that's where the work begins.”

Damian Green, the former deputy prime minister, who lost his